“A librarian can’t live by books alone, and I wouldn’t eat them if I could. Feel too much like cannibalism.”

“I could write an epic poem about your thighs.”“That would amuse polite society rather too much, and I wouldn’t like that.”“I wouldn’t either.” She pressed her cheek to his belly. “I can’t think of a word to rhyme with marble column.”

“But I am, personally, not a gambler. I wouldn’t spend £1 on the lottery, let alone take a punt on a pregnancy. The stakes are far, far too high. I can’t agree with a society that would force me to bet on how much I could love under duress.”

“It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.”

“We live and breathe words. It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved again. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.”

“Most vegetarians look so much like the food they eat that they can be classified as cannibals.”