Can I tell you something? It wasn't so bad. Not so bad at all right then, me scowling at the dirt, James in his bed, the way it always always was. Lo….

You can't out-travel sadness. I travel not to get away from my troubles but to see how they look in front of famous buildings.

The cure for unhappiness is happiness, I don't care what anyone says..

As for me, I believe that if there's a God - and I am as neutral on the subject as is possible - then the most basic proof of His existence is black ….

The idea of a library full of books, the books full of knowledge, fills me with fear and love and courage and endless wonder..

People think librarians are unromantic, unimaginative. This is not true. We are people whose dreams run in particular ways. Ask a mountain climber wh….

My father was right: you could make anybody amazing just by insisting they were..

Librarian like Stewardess, Certified Public Accountant, Used Car Salesman is one of those occupations that people assume attract a certain deformed p….

Books remember all the things you cannot contain..

I had never wanted to be one of those girls in love with boys who would not have me. Unrequited love - plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing - turne….

Unrequited love–plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing–turned you into a salesperson, and what you were selling was something he didn't want, couldn'….

For some people, history is simply what your wife looks good standing in front of. It’s what’s cast in bronze, or framed in sepia tones, or acted out….

truthfully, this is the fabric of all my fantasies: love shown not by a kiss or a wild look or a careful hand but by a willingness for research. i do….

There are writers who can show you the excellence of their brains and writers who show you the depths of their souls: I don't know any writer who doe….

Fire is a speed reader, which is why the ignorant burn books: fire races through pages, takes care of all the knowledge, and never bores you with a s….

It's a happy life, but someone is missing. It's a happy life, and someone is missing..

Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving..

but you can't spend your whole life hoping people will ask you the right questions. you must learn to love and answer the questions they already ask..

Despite popular theories, I believe people fall in love based not on good looks or fate but on knowledge. Either they are amazed by something a belov….

After most deaths, I imagine, the awfulness lies in how everything’s changed….there’s a hole. It’s person-shaped and it follows you everywhere…. For ….

Library books were, I suddenly realized, promiscuous, ready to lie down in the arms of anyone who asked. Not like bookstore books, which married thei….