Rumer Godden

If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side. because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom.

The motto was "Pax," but the word was set in a circle of thorns.

The stitch of a book is its words.

When you learn to read you will be born again and you will never be quite so alone again.

To wake for the first time in a new place can be like another birth.

In good company your thoughts run in solitude your thought is still ... In talk your mind can be stretched widened exhilarated to heights but it cannot be deepened you have to deepen it yourself.

For a dyed-in-the-wool author, nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. She is rather like a cat whose kittens have grown up.