'The biggest kick'

‘The biggest kick is reading something new and exciting and then getting other people to share your enthusiasm... Beyond all the cant and hypocrisy in publishing, that's what it's all about...'

On receiving the Maxwell Perkins Award for lifetime achievement:

‘I have always found comfort in the confines of a book or a manuscript, Reading is how I spend most of my time and is still the most joyful aspect of my day. I want to be remembered not as an editor or publisher, but as a reader...

It has been said that my outlook can sometimes be dour, even dire. I don' think you can work is this business without faith or optimism. Reading a manuscript, sensing something special about it, and believing you can find readership for it, is an article of faith.'

Sonny Mehta, Publisher of Knopf, who died recently.