Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

"Unpacking books is a revelatory activity."

"In a library, no empty shelf remains empty for long."

"Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted."

"If every library is in some sense a reflection of its readers, it is also an image of that which we are not, and cannot be."

"But at night, when the library lamps are lit, the outside world disappears and nothing but the space of books remains in existence."

"There is a line of poetry, a sentence in a fable, a word in an essay, by which my existence is justified; find that line, and immortality is assured."

"In the dark, with the windows lit and the rows of books glittering, the library is a closed space, a universe of self-serving rules that pretend to replace or translate those of the shapeless universe beyond."

"My books hold between their covers every story I've ever known and still remember, or have now forgotten, or may one day read; they fill the space around me with ancient and new voices."

"Our society accepts the book as a given, but the act of reading -- once considered useful and important, as well as potentially dangerous and subversive -- is now condescendingly accepted as a pastime, a slow pastime that lacks efficiency and does not contribute to the common good."

"Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth."

"In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian."

"I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books."

"Old books that we have known but not possessed cross our path and invite themselves over. New books try to seduce us daily with tempting titles and tantalizing covers."

"I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days."

"One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries."

"I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books."

"If justice takes place, there may be hope, even in the face of a seemingly capricious divinity."

"Readers, censors know, are defined by the books they read."

"It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed."

"Digestion of words as well; I often read aloud to myself in my writing corner in the library, where no one can hear me, for the sake of better savouring the text, so as to make it all the more mine."