Alberto Manguel Quotes

Nobody wants an ugly book.

Why wouldn't - how couldn't - an author care about how his or her books look?

How do you tell a valuable French book?' 'First there are the pictures. Then it is a question of the quality of the pictures. Then it is the binding. If a book is good, the owner will have it bound properly. All books in English are bound, but bound badly. There is no way of judging them.

There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders, and illuminated pictures cunningly inset. But nowadays, instead of looking at books, people read them. A book might as well be one of those orders for bacon and bran.

Every book should begin with attractive endpapers. Preferably in a dark colour: dark red or dark blue, depending on the binding. When you open the book it's like going to the theatre. First you see the curtain. Then it's pulled aside and the show begins.

I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him.

In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.

Fashion, for me, is anything that's aesthetic and beautiful. Art, food, film. It's something that I appreciate and really like.

Yes, but more than being a designer, I'm more of a stylist, because I don't sew and I don't sketch, but I'm good at putting things together, choosing things that are chic and glossing over the aesthetics of things.

Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.

Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.

Taste is so much more important than fashion.

I think we choose gear by the way that it looks. We choose lots of things by the way that it looks. I don't like bands that look like roadies. I don't like when I can't tell who's the guitar tech and who's the guitar player.

If you've written a powerful book about a woman and your publisher then puts a 'feminine' image on the cover, it 'types' the book.

I'm an artist, and I love the visual. Fashion is high art sometimes and hack work other times, but it's something worthy of study and love.

Green and black go well together, don't they?

I really thing that people more and more want beautiful things about them.

Function alone does not make clothing appealing.

As an object itself, to me, books today are such a rare entity - I want mine to be something where, if left on the kitchen table, a child could pick it up. It can visually tell a story.

Celebrities have nothing to do with style.

I'm more for the style than the brand. I don't go brand shopping; I go detail shopping.

I steer clear of books with ugly covers. And ones that are touted as 'sweeping,' 'tender' or 'universal.'

There's a lot of books that I've purchased simply because of the cover design. On the other hand, there's certain books that, even if I'm very curious about the content, I can't bring myself to buy if I really dislike the cover.

I have endorsed every hair product in my career. Looks have been my bread, butter, jam. Looks are important in our society.

I love to experiment with my looks and dresses on and off the court because I love to turn out very well. But, I must add here that just good-looking athletes can't do anything for their sport.