“They were old, their covers cracked and their bindings frayed, but as far as Gwendolyn was concerned that only made the words cocooned between their musty pages more precious.”

“As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary. ”

“We are thickly layered, page lying upon page, behind simple covers. And love - it is not the book itself, but the binding.”

“It's only a story.' As if such words made it less real. But I did not believe him even then, for stories were written down, and the words on the page were proof enough. Fixed and permanent in time, the words, if anything, made the people and places more real than the everchanging world.”

“O was infinitely more moving when her body was covered with marks, of whatever kind, if only because these marks made it impossible for her to cheat and immediately proclaimed, the moment they were seen, that anything went as far as she was concerned. For to know this was one thing, but to see the proof of it, and to see the proof constantly renewed, was quite another.”

“From all old seamy throats of elders, musty books, I've salvaged not a word.”