“Why is it that people who wouldn't dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly all right to steal books?”

“Have you got De Tocqueville's Journey to America? Somebody borrowed mine and never gave it back. Why is it that people who wouldn't dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly all right to steal books?”

“I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.”

“And for at least that moment, I wouldn't have traded the hundreds of books I've read for the few I know almost by heart.”

“Did I tell you I finally found the perfect page-cutter? It's a pearl-handled fruit knife. My mother left me a dozen of them, I keep one in the pencil cup on my desk. Maybe I go with the wrong kind of people but i'm just not likely to have twelve guests all sitting around simultaneously eating fruit.”

“It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read, it's like buying a dress you haven't tried on.”

“I'll have mine [The Book-Lovers' Anthology] till the day I die - and die happy in the knowledge that I'm leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some book-lover yet unborn.”