Ian Laird

“She did not know that morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.”
― Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop

“The faint aroma of gum and calico that hangs about a library is as the fragrance of incense to me. I think the most beautiful sight is the gilt-edged backs of a row of books on a shelf. The alley between two well-stocked shelves in a hall fills me with the same delight as passing through a silent avenue of trees. The colour of a binding-cloth and its smooth texture gives me the same pleasure as touching a flower on its stalk. A good library hall has an atmosphere which elates. I have seen one or two University Libraries that have the same atmosphere as a chapel, with large windows, great trees outside, and glass doors sliding on noiseless hinges.”
― R K Narayan

“Every marriage was imperfect and the destroying agents, the imperfections, were there, unseen, from the start.”
― Olivia Manning, Fortunes of War: The Levant Trilogy

“Book-burners try to destroy ideas that differ from their own. Reading does the opposite. It encourages doubt... reading releases you from the limits of yourself.”
― John Carey