#books

"Books may well be the only true magic."

"Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?"

"The world’s greatest achievers have been those who have always stayed focussed on their goals and have been consistent in their efforts."

"There are essentially two things that will make you wise -- the books you read and the people you meet."

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

"As a fan of Agatha Christie, I think a brilliant mystery novel would be trying to identify the meat contents in a McDonald’s hamburger."

"When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser."

"It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else."

"Only five books tonight, Mommy,"she says.No, Olivia, just one."How about four?"Two."Three."Oh, all right, three. But that's it!"

"While we are looking for the antidote or the medicine to cure us, that is, the 'new', which can only be found by plunging deep into the Unknown, we have to go on exploring sex, books, and travel, although we know that they lead us to the abyss, which, as it happens, is the only place where the antidote can be found."

"If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again."

"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."

"Of all the inanimate objects, of all men's creations, books are the nearest to us for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to the truth, and our persistent leanings to error. But most of all they resemble us in their precious hold on life."

"It is time to float on the waters of the night. Time to wrap my arms around this book and press it to my chest, life preserver in a sea of unremarkable men and women, anonymous faces on the street, a hundred thousand unalphabetized things, a million forgotten hours."

"Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being."

"Some like to believe it's the book that chooses the person."

"And so I'm me again, Leo. Thanks to the example of a five-year-old. I'm hoping you wouldn't want it any other way. Not that you weren't flattered, right? I mean, to have a girl two thousand miles away going to pieces over you, weeping at the mere memory of you, losing her appetite, losing herself and self-respect - well, that's trophy enough for any guy's ego, huh?"

"...I will not allow books to prove any thing.""But how shall we prove any thing?""We never shall."

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot."