opening the book, i inhaled. the smell of old books, so sharp, so dry you can taste it.

Politeness. Now there's a poor man's virtue if ever there was one. What's so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it's easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else. People with ambition don't give a damn what other people think about them.

Emmeline didn't call me anything. She didn't need, for I was always there. You only need names for the absent.

What better way to get to know someone than through her choice and treatment of books?

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.

For me to see is to read. It has always been that way.

In this cruel world kindness should always be repaid.