“Reading is at the center of our lives. The library is our brain. Without the library, you have no civilization.”

“Without the library, you have no civilization.”

“You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any good unless you are raised and live in a library everyday of your life.”

“What's the point of having a library full of books you've already read?”

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”

“Live in the library, for Christ’s sake! Don’t live on your goddamn computers and the internet and all that crap. Go to the library!”

“This is incredible. This is quite amazing because who you're honoring tonight is not only myself but the ghost of a lot of your favorite writers. And I wouldn't be here except that they spoke to me in the library. The library's been the center of my life. I never made it to college. I started going to the library when I graduated from high school. I went to the library every day for three or four days a week for 10 years and I graduated from the library when I was 28.”