History, as they say, is alive and well and living in London.

Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.

I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.

If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.

Why is it that people who wouldn't dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly all right to steal books?

And for at least that moment, I wouldn't have traded the hundreds of books I've read for the few I know almost by heart.

I wanted to see London the way old people want to see home before they die.

Talent is the infinite capacity for taking pains. Genius is the infinite capacity for achievement without taking any pains at all.

Hollywood isn't a place, it's a way of life.

It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read, it's like buying a dress you haven't tried on.

I liked reading about the nun who ate so dainty with her fingers she never dripped any grease on herself. I've never been able to make that claim and I use a fork.

An institution is the lengthening shadow of one man.

Take time every day to do something silly.

Rule of thumb: The more trimmings an insurance plan has and the harder someone is pitching it, the faster you should run.

Being a father is the most rewarding thing a man whose career has plateaued can do.

Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay.

By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it.

Perhaps one of the most essential exercises in learning to paint is the copying of master works in the museums.

In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

Her glass wings are gone.

Be successful! I judge men only by the results of their actions.