Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives.

The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one's mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life, and whi

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.

The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.

One of my principal childhood memories is hearing one of the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies waft throughout the house.

We're focusing on particular works — films, books, pieces of music, architecture — that deserve the name 'icon' and have this influence on our culture. Everybody knows those things, but almost because they're icons, people don't look below the fact of them.