“To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world.”

“I prefer the company of books. When I'm reading, I'm never alone, I have a conversation with the book. It can be very intimate. Perhaps you know this feeling yourself? The sense that you're having an intellectual exchange with the author, following his or her train thought and you accompany each other for weeks on end.”

“That's what sofas are for: sit down, drink a cup of tea, talk of literature. At least that's how I see it.”

“I prefer the company of books.”

“That's the trouble with having the whole world love you. One day, you wake up and it's flirting with your best friend instead. And you don't know what to do. You're thrown.”

“Jeez Louise. I know why rich people are so thin: it's from trekking around their humongous houses the whole time.”

“It's not enough to believe! Don't you see that, you stupid girl? You could spend your whole life hoping and believing! If a love affair is one-sided, then it's only ever a question, never an answer. You can't live your life waiting for an answer.”