“I enjoy sharing my books as I do my friends, asking only that you treat them well and see them safely home.”

“I am treating you as my friend, asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future plusses.”

“I keep my friends around, try to stay close to them, try to treat them right. I try to stay in touch with my friends who are far away, and I do a bad job of that, but I carry them with me.”

“Indentations on the page, words, my friends, and I will share them with you.”

“All books are in safe hands with me. They're my children, my inky children, and I look after them well. I keep the sunlight away from their pages, I dust and protect them from hungry hookworms and grubby human fingers.”

“Six books… my mother didn’t want books falling into my hands. It never occurred to her that I fell into the books – that I put myself inside them for safe keeping.”