I need information about a quote. A British philosopher--Gilbert Ryle,
maybe--was asked once if he ever read novels. His reply was
something like "Oh yes. All six of them every year," referring to the
novels of Jane Austen. I need to know (a) whose quote this really is;
(b) the exact wording of the quote; and (c) the source of the quote.
Many thanks.

The exact wording of the quote appears to be:
"Do you read novels?" 
"Yes, all six of them. Every year."

I recall having seen this quote attributed to Gilbert Ryle, who was
certainly enough of a Janeite to have said such a thing. However, I
can find no proof whatsoever, other than this very vague newsgroup
post:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=fa.bbqcqcb.1q16h27%40ifi.uio.no&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain

I suspect that this is one of those apocryphal witticisms whose actual
source may never be known.