"A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn't tell it like it was, you told it like you thought it should have been."
"Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory."
"The world was hers for the reading."
"The library was a little old shabby place. Francie thought it was beautiful. The feeling she had about it was as good as the feeling she had about church. She pushed open the door and went in. She liked the combined smell of worn leather bindings, library past and freshly inked stamping pads better than she liked the smell of burning incense at high mass."
"From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood."
"Francie, huddled with other children of her kind, learned more that first day than she realized. She learned of the class system of a great Democracy."