‘All good publishers have a department of exceptions.’

Perhaps any institution worth its salt should have a department of exceptions: schools admissions offices, human resources departments, government ministries.

Trouble is, it takes great extra dollops of judgement, discretion and wisdom to run them successfully, otherwise you end up with ‘Pay me a tenner and I’ll make an exception’, which isn’t the idea here. Anyhow, I’d love to have a go as ‘Director, Department of Exceptions’. At very least, I will weave this marvelous idea into a children’s story.

Source: So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid, trans by Natasha Wimmer, London: Sort of Books, 2004, p. 47