When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.

But the purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world.

We live for books.

but I had also learned that freedom of speech means freedom from rhetoric.

We are always remaking history. Our memory is always an interpretive reconstruction of the past, so is perspective.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.

After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs.