“It is indeed possible to be widely read, as I am, and still have black holes in one's knowledge.”

“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”

“If knowledge is power, let's spread it as widely as possible and dilute it to deny those who would abuse it.”

“I, however, like black. It is a color that makes me comfortable and the color with which I have the most experience. In the darkest darkness, all is black. In the deepest hole, all is black. In the terror of my Addicted mind, all is black. In the empty periods of my lost memory, all is black. I like black, goddammit, and I am going to give it its due.”

“I read and am liberated. I acquire objectivity. I cease being myself and so scattered. And what I read, instead of being like a nearly invisible suit that sometimes oppresses me, is the external world’s tremendous and remarkable clarity, the sun that sees everyone, the moon that splotches the still earth with shadows, the wide expanses that end in the sea, the blackly solid trees whose tops greenly wave, the steady peace of ponds on farms, the terraced slopes with their paths overgrown by grape-vines.”

“I have a black-belt in self-pity. I was an expert in the field. Still am. It's a skill you never forget.”