Clearly she knew that between book lovers, a novel is not a novel is not a novel. It’s a symbol, an offering – and sometimes a test.

You know you’re in a bad patch when the most interesting part of the book you’re reading is the acknowledgments page.

I m not about to tell him that I am just like Anna and Emma, an adulteress. My books are my secret lovers, the friends I run to to get away from the daily drudgeries of life, to try out something new, and yes, to get away, for a few hours, from him. He doesn’t need to know that my books are the affairs I don’t have.

Interest in reading memoirs is universal. What has happened is that people are writing about more and more outrageous things. Our threshold for weirdness – you can’t have just a normal childhood – has gone way up.

Explaining the moment of connection between a reader and book to someone who's never experienced it is like trying to describe sex to a virgin.

When things go right, I read. When things go wrong, I read more.

Interest in reading memoirs is universal. What has happened is that people are writing about more and more outrageous things. Our threshold for weirdness - you can't have just a normal childhood - has gone way up.

The doctors were so busy they couldn't take care of them all.

I do think that publishers will spend more time thinking about these things the next time out.

They wouldn't let me in the room where she was cause they were afraid I'd get it, too.