5 Nights in Paris Quotes

“La griffe is the pattern of one’s walk around the city on a shopping day. Strictly speaking, it means “claw,” or the mark made by talons scratching a tree, but in practice it’s one’s signature, the mark that signifies ownership of a territory.”
― John Baxter, Five Nights in Paris: After Dark in the City of Light

“I loved reading but I loved books almost as much. Their look, their smell, their weight enshrined, to me, the worth that others found in religion, in bricks and mortar, even in relationships. A book could be friend, lover, family, priest, but more reliable than any of these. With books, one could wall off the world. In their shelter, a calm prevailed more profound than that of the stars or the sea.”
― John Baxter, 5 Nights in Paris

“I loved reading but I loved books almost as much. Their look, their smell, their weight enshrined, to me, the worth that others found in religion, in bricks and mortar, even in relationships. A book could be friend, lover, family, priest, but more reliable than any of these. With books, one could wall off the world. In their shelter, a calm prevailed more profound than that of the stars or the sea.”
― John Baxter, Five Nights in Paris: After Dark in the City of Light