We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory … - Robertson Davies

I know well enough how people in love drag the name of the loved one into every conversation, simply to utter that magical word, to savor it on the tongue.

This is, after all, a book about reading, and the kind of reader I am addressing does not care primarily about being in fashion.

Such rebellion is too deep and too constant to express itself in picketing, marching, sitting-in or freaking out; it is the serious, unresting protest of serious people. It is 24-hours-a-day rebellion, not intermittent, showy, status-seeking public uproar. It is rebellion as a way of life.