I'll have mine [The Book-Lovers' Anthology] till the day I die - and die happy in the knowledge that I'm leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some book-lover yet unborn.

But I don't know, maybe it's just as well I never got there. I dreamed about it for so many years. I used to go to English movies just to look at the streets. I remember years ago a guy I knew told me that people going to England find exactly what they go looking for. I said I'd go looking for the England of English Literature, and he nodded and said: "It's there.

Fact One: Cataract surgery is simple, painless and (except with implants) risk free ... the whole procedure is common, routine and nothing to worry about. Fact Two: Fact One applies only to cataracts on the eyes in somebody else's head.

If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.

I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.

And for at least that moment, I wouldn't have traded the hundreds of books I've read for the few I know almost by heart.

Talent is the infinite capacity for taking pains. Genius is the infinite capacity for achievement without taking any pains at all.