The wise man does not discriminate; he gathers all the shreds of light, from wherever they may come.

The pleasures of love are pains that become desirable, where sweetness and torment blend, and so love is voluntary insanity, infernal paradise, and celestial hell - in short, harmony of opposite yearnings, sorrowful laughter, soft diamond.

A library's ideal function is to be a little bit like a bouquiniste's stall, a place for trouvailles.

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

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

We like lists because we don't want to die.

I am an old consumer of papers. I cannot avoid reading my newspapers every morning.