We human beings build houses because we're alive but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place but that no one can replace either. It offers no definitive explanation of our destiny but links us inextricably to life. Its tiny secret links remind us of how paradoxically happy we are to be alive while illuminating how tragically absurd life is.

I have never experienced a sorrow that was not relieved by an hour of reading.

I master my doubts now. I have fun with them, they're my travelling companions.

You can't make someone read. Just like you can't make them fall in love, or dream.

But reading is different, reading is something you do. With TV, and cinema for that matter, everything's handed to you on a plate, nothing has to be worked at, they just spoon-feed you. The picture, the sound, the scenery, the atmospheric music in case you haven't understood what the director's on about... The creaking door that tells you to be stiff. You have to imagine it all when you're reading.

Each country thinks its school is in a specific crisis, without ever linking the school's crisis to that of the society around it.

When you buy a jacket, it’s important the pockets are big enough for a paperback!