“Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it.”

“[On libraries] What's great about them is that anybody can go into them and find a book and borrow it free of charge and read it. They don't have to steal it from a bookshop… You know when you're young, you're growing up, they're almost sexually exciting places because books are powerhouses of knowledge, and therefore they're kind of slightly dark and dangerous. You see books that kind of make you go 'Oh!”

“It is like having a book out from the library.
It is like constantly having a book out from the library.”

“Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.”

“It's a forced disappearance...All those who have disappeared are related to the Causeway Bay bookshop and this bookshop was famous, not only for the sale, but also for the publication and circulation of a series of sensitive books.”

“You took out a book on blow-job technique from the British Library? They shouldn't have books like that in there!”

“Collect books, even if you don't plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.”

“I've always liked libraries. They're quiet and full of books and full of knowledge.”

“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”