#on libraries

“I prefer the company of books. When I’m reading, I’m never alone, I have a conversation with the book. It can be very intimate.”

I am deeply saddened by the loss of books, even bound periodicals, for there is something irreplaceable about a physical book: its look, its smell, its heft.

Reading is important. Books are important. Librarians are important. (Also, libraries are not child-care facilities, but sometimes feral children raise themselves among the stacks.)

The smell of the library always lifted my spirits.

When I was an unhappy little boy, going to the library changed my life. It may even have saved it. Amazing as it sounds, literature can do that for you. Books are your ticket to the whole world. They're a free ticket to the entire earth.

People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.