Reading is the occupation of the insomniac par excellence.

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

Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.

The love of libraries, like most loves, must be learned.

Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge.

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.

I always knew that I wanted to live with books, even as a child, because we traveled a lot. Home was the book to which I came back every evening.

Every library is a library of preferences, and every chosen category implies an exclusion.

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

Unicorns, dragons, witches may be creatures conjured up in dreams, but on the page their needs, joys, anguishes, and redemptions should be just as true as those of Madame Bovary or Martin Chuzzlewit.

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

I should become happier at what I do and leave others happier than before they’d met me.

Leaders always look twice – because sometimes it is good from far but far from good – at a second look.

You cannot create genius. All you can do is nurture it.

One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth.

The art of walking is at once suggestive of the dignity of man. Progressive motion alone implies power, but in almost every other instance it seems a power gained at the expense of self-possession.

When God calls you to an extraordinary task, He provides extraordinary resources.

Maybe kissing is sort of like nature's coffee. -Jonathan

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.

You get better at working by working. And if you don't work, you're not getting better.