“The trouble with bookshops is that they are as bad as pubs. You start at one and then you drift to another, and before you know where you are you are on a gigantic book-binge. My brief case was full to bursting and I had bundles of books under both arms. I was bowed down by the weight of them.”

“CUSTOMER: I read a book in the sixties. I don’t remember the author, or the title. But it was green, and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean?”

“God made only one you and He threw the mold away.”

“One of my favorite dialogue pieces from Black Creek Burning: “It was a polite, white lie,” Brie whispered. “I’ll have to remember you think that way,” Nathan said.”

“CUSTOMER: Hi.BOOKSELLER: Hi there, how can I help?CUSTOMER: Could you please explain Kindle to me.BOOKSELLER: Sure. It’s an e-reader, which means you download books and read them on a small hand-held computer.CUSTOMER: Oh OK, I see. So . . . this Kindle. Are the books on that paperback or hardback?”

“The happiest pillow on which you may rest your head is the knowledge of God's will. I cannot imagine a more miserable situation than consciously to be out of God's will.”

“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.”