Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination.

Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge.

القراءة شأنها شأن أي شيء آخر، ما لم نجد فيه بهجة، فإنه جهد لا يستحق التعب، من هنا تكمن مهمة القارئ، بأن يثق في كتابه حين يجد المتعة، وليمضي معه، حيث تكون، المتعة واللذة في القراءة أمر غامض، لربما تبدأ من نقطة ونجد أنفسنا فجأة في مسار مختلف آخر تماماً، الكثير يكتب سيراً ذاتية ومجيدة وعظيمة، لكن ليس كلها بالضرورة تخلق متعة للقارئ الجيد

I don't remember ever feeling lonely; in fact, on the rare occasions when I met other children I found their games and their talk far less interesting than the adventures and dialogues I read in my books.

But a reader's ambition knows no bounds.

Digestion of words as well; I often read aloud to myself in my writing corner in the library, where no one can hear me, for the sake of better savouring the text, so as to make it all the more mine.

I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days.

There is a line of poetry, a sentence in a fable, a word in an essay, by which my existence is justified; find that line, and immortality is assured.

Life happened because I turned the pages.