The truth's not pretty of course. No one likes to look it in the face.

Every reader knows about the feeling that characters in books seem more real than real people.

It's a good idea to have your own books with you in a strange place

The world was a terrible place, cruel, pitiless, dark as a bad dream. Not a good place to live. Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness - and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly.

Everything gets to me. I'm very sentimental.

The night swallowed him up like a thieving fox.

It was much easier for him now that he was smaller to negotiate his way through his crammed shop but he still tried to swagger past the shelves like he used to in the past. The attempt looked so strange that Scipio started to mimic him behind his back. "What's the silly giggling about?" Barbarossa asked when Prosper and Renzo bust out laughing.