A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover. The social emotions it generates are equidistant from the philatelist's solitary gloating and the football fan's gregarious hysteria.

Reading is not an operation performed on something inert but a relationship entered into with another vital being.

The only reason for being young is to outgrow it.

The German mind has a talent for making no mistakes but the very greatest.

Books act like a developing fluid on film. That is, they bring into consciousness what you didn’t know you knew.

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

The tantrums of cloth-headed celluloid idols are deemed fit for grown-up conversation, while silence settles over such a truly important matter as food.