My thought is, if you're a book lover, you're going to enjoy winning a book even if it's not something you'd ordinarily pick up on your own. It's a chance to expand your horizons a little.

I decided to dub the room with the good chairs my lutery. Or perhaps my performatory. I would need a while to come up with something suitably pretentious.

She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.

Each woman is like an instrument, waiting to be learned, loved, and finely played, to have at last her own true music made.

All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.

When you love something, you have to make sure it loves you back, or you'll bring about no end of trouble chasing it.

If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way