“Right now there are no bookstores in downtown L.A. That’s terrible.
That’s stupid, isn’t it?…There’s no really big bookstore, Pickwick
used to be there, it was a very important bookstore….Bookstores
should be the center of our life. There’s no bookstore in Venice,
California right now. There’s no bookstore in Ocean Park. There’s no
bookstore in Beverly Hills. Jesus Christ, how dumb can you get! There’s
not one bookstore in Beverly Hills! All those stupid people, wandering
around, looking for ideas. That is such a dumb place. That’s why I’m
here…This is my home.

If this place could be kept here, if you’re going to build a mall,
they should build it around here. They should be the center of the
mall. They should be a shrine. They should have a crucifix up in front.
I will come and bless the goddamn place. And I mean that. I want this
store to remain here and they can build a mall around it…It should be
surrounded by other fascinating stores. It shouldn’t be moved. It
shouldn’t be changed because it’s the best bookstore in Long Beach and
one of the best in California.

There are ten million books here and other bookstores have a couple
of thousand, and they don’t smell the same way. An old book smells like
Egyptian incense. It’s great. It’s wonderful.“