“Libraries are our friends.”

“Libraries are the thin red line between civilization and barbarism."[Libraries on the Front Lines, ALA interview 2011]”

“[D]on't ever apologise to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that's what they're there for. Use your library). Don't apologise to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend's copy. What's important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read...”

“I see libraries and librarians as frontline soldiers in the war against illiteracy and the lack of imagination.”

“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.)”

“He would go somewhere no one knew him, and he would sit in a library all day and read books and listen to people breathing.”

“I was the kind of kid whose parents would drop him off at the local town library on their way to work, and I'd go and work my way through the children's area.”