“Lionel whispered because he was under the impression that it was out of respect for books, not consideration for readers.”

“A reader of mine is a deluxe reader, not because I’m so great but because in order to get to me you have to take a path through literature, not through some books bought out of curiosity at the bookstore. A reader of mine has to have read other things.”

“The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.”

“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.”

“He was under the impression that he belonged wherever there was something interesting to see.”

“Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wishes to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time.”