Every writer hopes his or her book will be its own thing.

No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.

When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.

...what will we someday do, I always wonder, without the pleasures of turning through books and stumbling on things we never meant to find?