We don't simply read books. We become them.

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

A book is meant not only to be read, but to haunt you, to importune you like a lover or a parent, to be in your teeth like a piece of gristle.

The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them.

We don't simply read books. We become them.

People ... have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work.

Sometimes it seems that we might have been happier if we had once had an aristocracy to blame everything on.