“Now you may have gotten the impression that there are absolutely no uses for Librarians. I'm sorry if I implied that. Librarians are very useful. For instance, they are useful if you are fishing for sharks and need some bait. They're also useful for throwing out windows to test the effects of concrete impact on horn-rimmed glasses. If you have enough Librarians, you can build bridges out of them. (Just like witches.)And, unfortunately, they are also useful for organizing things.”

“You can use your time to build bridges or walls.The latter is not only unChristlike, it limits impact & creates loneliness.”

“The librarian is a caricature of librarian - short white hair, horn-rimmed glasses, a bosom you could hide Christmas presents under and a New England-tight-ass face that looks like she hasn's taken a shit since her family came over on the Mayflower.”

“Social media’s like a brick — you can use it to build an orphanage or throw it through somebody’s car window.”

“Libraries are like houses of worship: Whether or not you use them yourself, it's important to know that they are there. In many ways they define a society and the values of that society. Librarians to me are the keepers of the flame of knowledge. When I was growing up, the librarian in my local library looked like a meek little old lady, but after you spent some time with her, you realized she was Athena with a sword, a wise and wonderful repository of wisdom.”

“I think you’re more an archivist than a librarian,” he said.He told me that archivists and librarians were opposite personas. True librarians are unsentimental. They’re pragmatic, concerned with the newest, cleanest, most popular books. Archivists, on the other hand, are only peripherally interested in what other people like, and much prefer the rare to the useful.”They like everything,” he said, “gum wrappers as much as books.” He said this with a hint of disdain.”Librarians like throwing away garbage to make space, but archivists,” he said, “they’re too crazy to throw anything out.””You’re right,” I said. ”I’m more of an archivist.””And I’m more of a librarian,” he said.”Can we still be friends?”