What really annoys me are the ones who write to say, I am doing your book for my final examinations and could you please tell me what the meaning of it is. I find it just so staggering--that you're supposed to explain the meaning of your book to some total stranger! If I knew what the meanings of my books were, I wouldn't have bothered to write them.

Sometimes it seems the only accomplishment my education ever bestowed on me was the ability to think in quotations.

I need words and print... I need print like an addict. I could live without it, perhaps. But I hope I never have to try.

Our desire to conform is greater than our respect for objective facts.

I've always thought that very few people grow old as admirably as academics. At least books never let them down.

London, how could one ever be tired of it?

There are some writers who wrote too much. There are others who wrote enough. There are yet others who wrote nothing like enough to satisfy their admirers, and Jane Austen is certainly one of these.