“To a bibliophile, there is but one thing better than a box of new books, and that is a box of old ones.”

“Does a bibliophile ever have enough room on his shelves? The answer is obvious: get more shelves.”

“Everyone who writes in the sub-genre of Victorian mystery stands in [Sir Arthur Conan] Doyle's shadow.”

“Books should be like magical jewelled boxes. It’s the writer’s job to tell the story. My job [the artist] is to make you want to pick up the box, and to peer inside.”

“Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”

“Deferring judgement to a later date resolves nothing and all you are left with is a box of jumbled slides and a collection of knick-knacks and odds and ends. Here a face. There a sunset.”

“That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.”