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

You are a total stranger and you want to take my library book.

It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.

I like a puzzle, as you know. So does every scholar worth his salt. It's the reward of the business, to look history in the eye and say, 'I know who you are. You can't fool me'.

It was strange, I reflected.. that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one's life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy.

There is nothing harder, at moments, than talking to someone who has all the power of silence.