I have a very childish attitude to books - a very non-analytic enthusiasm... like Alice falling down the chute.

I would go out with people who really didn't like me very much and then wonder why we weren't getting married!

The sight of parents, children and grandparents all descending on a tented field to enjoy the pleasure of ideas and books renews my faith in humanity.

Like cars, every relationship requires a bit of an occasional service, and fine-tuning should be compulsory.

Joy acts like a trampoline, everything that touches it bouncing right back off it.

Contrary to popular mythology, the best and most durable relationships are based not on vulnerability or passion but on a conjugation of positive attributes, a meeting of mind, body and soul that is all the more powerful as it is not weighed down with neediness and unreasonable expectation.