Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."

"In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own."

"How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind."

"those of us who read because we love it more than anything, who feel about bookstores the way some people feel about jewelers..."