Elizabeth Kostova Quotes

Books belong to their readers.

..you do not leave a library; if you do what it wants you to do, you are taking it with you.

Now, public libraries are most admirable institutions, but they have one irritating custom. They want their books back.

Once a book falls into our possession, it is ours, the same way children lay their claim: 'That's my book.' As if it were organically part of them. That must be why we have so much trouble returning borrowed books. It's not exactly theft (of course not, we're not thieves, what are you implying?); it's simply a slippage in ownership or, better still, a transfer of substance. That which belonged to someone else becomes mine when I look at it. And if I like what I read, naturally I'll have difficulty giving it back.

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them

Nobody steals books but your friends.

Entry is not equivalent to possession.

She'd absolutely adored the library_an entire building where anyone could take things they didn't own and feel no remorse about it.

She doesn’t want me to own her. (Dante) Well, the Simi doesn’t understand that. Owning’s not so bad. I own akri and he kind of fun. (Simi)

Why not? After all, it belongs to him.

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with.

You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed. - Esther

If you know each other well, you want to do business with people you know well. You don't do business with strangers.

I like the Chinese proverb: If a horse is yours, it will always come back!

You are mine, always, if ye will it or no, if ye want me or nay. Mine, and I willna let ye go

For God's sake, let's take the word 'possess' and put a brick round its neck and drown it ... We can't possess one another. We can only give and hazard all we have.

Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.

If you want something, if you take it for your own, you'll always be taking it from someone else.

It's a book. It's mine. And it's done.

Though the water running in the fountain be every ones, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out?

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

Possession naturally abates the Vigour of Desire.

... one cannot be happy in exile or in oblivion. One cannot always be a stranger. I want to return to my homeland, make all my loved ones happy. I see no further than this.

I want to feel that I own things.

If you want to get close to somebody, you have to tell him or her something intimate about yourself. They'll tell you something intimate in return, and if you keep this going, maybe you'll end up in love.