"Books are the greatest of all companions. Ah, I like books--like to look at them, like to see them standing there so learnedly on the shelves, like to read them, review them, and would, if I had time, like to write them. I like to read better than anything else. I am forever reading. It is history, in great party, history with action to it, which most attracts me."
"I admit a liking for novels where something happens. I want ghosts who do things. I don't care for the Henry James . . . kind of ghosts. I want real sepulchral ghosts, the kind that knock you over and eat fire, ghosts which are ghosts and none of your weak shallow apparitions."
"I am old fashioned, or sentimental, or something, about books. Whenever I read one I want, in the first place, to enjoy myself, and, in the next place, to feel that I am a little better, and not a little worse, for having read it. It is only the very exceptional novel which I will read if He does not marry Her, and even in exceptional novels I much prefer this consummation. I am not defending my attitude. I am merely stating it."
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