I find that when I come out of the library I'm in what I call the library bliss of being totally taken away from the distractions of life.

It's those little daily incidents of life that are dramatic, and if you put a frame around it , suddenly they become much bigger and much more important than you ever imagined.

I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are.

Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.

He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.

Don't write about what you know - write about what you're interested in. Don't write about yourself - you aren't as interesting as you think.

It's a rare book that wins the battle against drooping eyelids.