51 Quotes by Helene Hanff

I never overcame my conviction that writing for commercial television was a kind of prostitution.

I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I’m never going to read again like I throw out clothes I’m never going to wear again.

I just threw out a book somebody gave me, it was some slob’s version of what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell – only the slob didn’t LIVE in the time of Oliver Cromwell so how the hell does he know what it was like? Anybody wants to know what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell can slop on the sofa with Milton on his pro side and Walton on his con, and they’ll not only tell him what it was like, they’ll take him there.

Anything he liked, I’ll like. Except if it’s fiction. I never can get interested in things that didn’t happen to people who never lived.

I’m always ashamed when I discover how well-read other people are and how ignorant I am in comparison. If you saw the long list of famous books and authors I’ve never read you wouldn’t believe it. My problem is that while other people are reading fifty books I’m reading one book fifty times. I only stop when at the bottom of the page 20, say, I realize I can recite page 21 and 22 from memory. Then I put the book away for a few years.

I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some booklover yet unborn.