In my view, nineteen pounds of old books are at least nineteen times as delicious as one pound of fresh caviar.

I am very grateful to the electronic world for making my life easier, but there is something about holding a book - the smell and the world of association. Even when e-books are perfected, as they surely will be, it will be like being in bed with a very well-made robot rather than a warm, soft, human being whom you love.

Anyone who doubts that caffeine is a drug should read some of the prose composed under its influence.

If my father were still writing essays, every full-grown 'girl' would probably be transformed into a'woman'.

I can think of few better ways to introduce a child to books than to let her stack them, upend them, rearrange them, and get her fingerprints all over them.

One reason we have children I think is to learn that parts of ourselves we had given up for dead are merely dormant and that the old joys can re emerge fresh and new and in a completely different form.

Pen-bereavement is a serious matter.