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

I've nothing against people who love truth. Apart from the fact that they make dull companions.

But silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grown pale, sicken and die. And then they haunt you.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy

There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere.

Fate, at first so amenable, so reasonable, so open to negotiation, ends up by exacting a cruel revenge for happiness.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same.