People with ambition don't give a damn what other people think of them.

Of course I loved books more than people. Of course I valued "Jane Eyre" over the anonymous stranger...Of course all of Shakespeare was worth more than a human life.

Reading can be dangerous.

There was no single moment when I thought, Aha! What a great idea! Rather there was a slow and gradual accumulation of numerous small ideas.

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.

Our clients' faces, with the customary outward paleness and inner glow of the book lover.

As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living.