“If you even *need* a government, added Stig, "you are a life-form flawed beyond redemption.”

“Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.”

“...The verses of Byron, Keats or Poe are real whether they are in bootleg form or not. You can still read them for the same effect.”

“Cats aren't really friendly, they're just cozying up to the dominant life-form as a hedge against extinction.”

“He spent his life immersed in books to the cost of everything else, even personal relationships. "Friends," he'd once said, "are probably great, but I have forty thousands friends of my own already, and each of them needs my attention.”

“Do you really think you'd win a PR war against a bunch of committed librarians?' He thought about this, but he knew I was right. The libraries were a treasured institution and so central to everyday life that government and commerce rarely did anything that might upset them.Some say they were more powerful than the military, or, if not, they were certainly quieter. As they say: Don't mess with librarians.Only they use a stronger word than 'mess'...”

“Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.”