But like balloons, they were excessively buoyant, and if you weren't careful, they floated away.

In my view, nineteen pounds of old books are at least nineteen times as delicious as one pound of fresh caviar.

I can think of few better ways to introduce a child to books than to let her stack them, upend them, rearrange them, and get her fingerprints all over them.

Books wrote our life story, and as they accumulated on our shelves (and on our windowsills, and underneath our sofa, and on top of our refrigerator), they became chapters in it themselves.

Reading aloud means no skipping, no skimming, no cutting to the chase.

I have never been able to resist a book about books.

Pen-bereavement is a serious matter.

I'd rather have a book, but in a pinch I'll settle for a set of Water Pik instructions.

I, on the other hand, believe that books, maps, scissors, and Scotch tape dispensers are all unreliable vagrants, likely to take off for parts unknown unless strictly confined to quarters.

You're a romantic. What's romantic about a guy wanting to go somewhere and actually getting there?

...in the midst of the tumult, part ecstasy and part panic, into which all first-time mothers are thrown by sleep deprivation and headlong identity realignment.

He’d seen a lot of bizarre items left at gravesides, like a carton of eggs, a pair of reading glasses, a bag of licorice, smooth stones, a spoon.

Patriotism, that least discerning of pas

Photographers and artists contribute a lot to the world and have a right to exist in relative security and comfort.

Of all political sacred-cows, education is the most sacred and the most cow-like.

Good talkers are only found in Paris.

Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality and benevolence, the other from pride or fear.

The beauty of personal authenticity can compensate for the lost beauty of our youth.

Everyone - particularly my female friends I speak to - all say 'I wouldn't be in my twenties again if I was paid.' It's a difficult time.

Greece is the mother of democracy and South Africa is its youngest daughter

People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt.