We read to understand, or to begin to understand. We cannot do but to read. Reading almost as much as breathing, is our essential function.

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.

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

Our brains are obviously capable of astoundingly fast and complex calculations that happen subconsciously. We can't explain them because most of the time we hardly even realize they're happening.

They are coming to teach us good manners!" I replied in English. "But they won't succeed, because we are gods.

We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us.

If I ever married, I know I would dread the daily sound of the key in the door and the casual expectancy of 'Hello! I'm home!

You lose power to the people and circumstances you judge. They capture your attention in the same way that a movie does.

It's too much show business and too much prompting, too much artificiality, and not really debates. They're rehearsed appearances.

Give me 100 men that hate nothing but sin, and love Jesus Christ, and we'll shake England for God.

We need writers, we need to tell stories that include minority people, and then we won't have this discussion about Oscar so white.

My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind