“However hard as I try, it keeps growing. My bibliomania is pretty acute.”

“Seldom happier than when I'm on my own, lost in a book.”

“One thing you learn in my job is that the truth is usually the last thing people want to emerge. Guilty or innocent, it doesn't matter. Everyone has something to hide.”

“She says I ought to throw out at least two books for every one I buy. I had new bookshelves put up in the cottage after moving in, but already the to-be-read pile is mounting on to floor of the spare room.”

“Whatever the reasons, we never allow anyone else to know the whole of our personal history. I suppose we're afraid of what they might think of us. But there's more to it than that. We are terrified of what they might do with the knowledge.”

“He loved the smell and feel of old books. To hold them was to touch the past.”

“Readers came and went, only the books stayed forever.”