Life isn't, and has never been, a 2-0 home victory after a fish and chip lunch.

And what would happen if we never read the classics? There comes a point in life, it seems to me, where you have to decide whether you're a Person of Letters or merely someone who loves books, and I'm beginning to see that the book lovers have more fun.

I'm still not a very good white wine, but I'm drinkable - you could put me in a punch, anyway.

All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal. ... But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not.

He has the personality of a child prodigy, but no discernable talent.

my friends don't seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven't lost.

When you get older, it feels like happy memories and sad memories are pretty much the same thing. It is all just emotion in the end. And any of it can make you weep.