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

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave.

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.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

The more I like a book, the more slowly I read. this spontaneous talking back to a book is one of the things that makes reading so valuable.

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

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