One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances a... - Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

"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."

"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."

"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."

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