Helene Hanff Quotes

“It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read, it's like buying a dress you haven't tried on.”

“It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I've never read before.”

“Why is it that people who wouldn't dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly all right to steal books?”

“I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.”

“Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.”

“If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.”

“i am going to bed. i will have nightmares involving huge monsters in academic robes carrying long bloody butcher knives labeled Excerpt, Selection, Passage, and Abridged.”

“I don't browse in bookshops, I browse in libraries, where you can take a book home and read it, and if you like it you go to a bookshop and buy it.”