Love, for me, is something I find in books. You’re never alone if you are surrounded by books.

People apologize too much, everyone’s afraid of giving offence and it leads to literature being written for babies. Low-brow rubbish. That’s not the way to become an adult.

The only thing that consoles me is to be surrounded by people as depressed as I am. The readers down here, they’re seriously depressed and that cheers me up. You yourself for instance, if I can put this politely, you don’t exactly look like a bundle of laughs. No, don’t pretend, I can see right through you.

Being a librarian isn't an especially high-level job, I can tell you. Pretty close to being in a factory. I'm a cultural assembly line worker.

De toute façon, qu'est ce qu'un Américain sinon un Européen qui a raté le bateau du retour ?

Book and reader, if they meet up at the right moment, it can make sparks fly, set you alight, change your life. It can, I promise you.

That's what sofas are for: sit down, drink a cup of tea, talk of literature. At least that's how I see it.

I prefer the company of books. When I'm reading, I'm never alone, I have a conversation with the book. It can be very intimate. Perhaps you know this feeling yourself? The sense that you're having an intellectual exchange with the author, following his or her train thought and you accompany each other for weeks on end.

To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world.

La culture, c'est un effort permanent de l'être pour échapper à sa vile condition de primate sous-civilisé.