Jasper Fforde: The fun one can have writing books about books is limit...

Librarying is a harder profession than the public realizes, he said. People think it's all rubber stamps, knowing that Dewey 521 is celestial mechanics and saying 'Try looking under fiction' sixty eight times a day.

Jasper Fforde

eight knowing thinking

People don't change just because you know more about them.

Jasper Fforde

people-dont-change dont-change people

Sometimes choice is a luxury that fate does not afford us.

Jasper Fforde

luxury fate choices

"Edward, Edward," he said with a patronising smile, "there are no unanswered questions of any relevance. Every question that we need to ask has been answered fully. If you can't find the correct answer then you are obviously asking the wrong question."

Jasper Fforde

unanswered-questions asking needs

I don't need you to agree with me," she said quietly." I'll go away happy with a little bit of doubt. Doubt is good. It's an emotion we can build on. Perhaps if we feed it with curiosity it will blossom into something useful, like suspicion - and action.

Jasper Fforde

i-dont-need-you curiosity doubt

Everything comes to an end. A good bottle of wine, a summer’s day, a long-running sitcom, one’s life, and eventually our species. The question for many of us is not that everything will come to an end but when. And can we do anything vaguely useful until it does?

Jasper Fforde

wine summer running

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

Jasper Fforde

writing discovery art

Lesson one in time travel, Thursday. First of all, we are all time travellers. The vast majority of us manage only one day per day.

Jasper Fforde

majority lessons one-day

Do I have to talk to insane people?" "You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.

Jasper Fforde

librarian insane people

The Kingdom of Hereford was unique in the Ununited Kingdoms for having driving tests based on maturity, not age, much to the chagrin of a lot of males, some of whom were still failing to make the grade at thirty-two.

Jasper Fforde

maturity unique two

You see? I know where every single book used to be in the library. She pointed to the shelf opposite. Over there was Catch-22, which was a hugely popular fishing book and one of a series, I believe.

Jasper Fforde

lakes believe book

So my humor, I'd say, comes from a mixture of lowbrow comedy shows and highbrow theater. It's an interesting mix.

Jasper Fforde

mixtures comedy interesting

Marriage is an honorable estate and should not be used simply as an excuse for legal intercourse.

Jasper Fforde

excuse used should

Writing is not something you can do or you can't. It's not even something that 'other people do' or 'for smart people only' or even 'for people who finished school and went to University'. Nonsense. Anyone can do it. But no-one can do it straight off the bat. Like plastering, brain surgery or assembling truck engines, you have to do a bit of training - get your hands dirty - and make some mistakes.

Jasper Fforde

smart mistake dirty

Love isn't sensible, Red. I think that's the point.

Jasper Fforde

red sensible thinking

We're in a psuedoscientific technobabble.

Jasper Fforde

That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd.

Jasper Fforde

destiny odd

Books" - Snell smiled - "are a kind of magic.

Jasper Fforde

magic kind book

To espresso or to latte, that is the question...whether 'tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain...or to take a cup to go. Or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and by opposing the endless choice, end one's heartache.

Jasper Fforde

espresso heartache white

Growth purely for its own sake is the philosophy of cancer.

Jasper Fforde

cancer growth philosophy

The fun one can have writing books about books is limitless, to be honest.