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Art is the whisper of history, heard above the noise of time.

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how weird it would be to have around you only as many books as you have time to read in the rest of your life. And I remain deeply attached to the phy...more

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It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of fa...more

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When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores...more

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Reading is a majority skill but a minority art.

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Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised ...more

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Me and my books, in the same apartment: like a gherkin in its vinegar.

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[Flaubert] didn’t just hate the railway as such; he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific ...more

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I didn't doubt for a moment that she had read them all, or that they were the right books to own. Further, they seemed to be an organic combination of...more

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In those years before mobile phones, email and Skype, travelers depended on the rudimentary communications system known as the postcard. Other methods...more