“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”

“Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.”

“Books, I found, had the power to make timestand still, retreat or fly into the future.”

“It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.”

“I can look at my books with pleasure from a distance. Four feet is close enough.”

“Nothing is as far away as one minute ago”

“Each night he must be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.Just as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie his rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window, for the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison, runs there beside him. He regards it as a disease he has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep his hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.”