Readers are bullied in schoolyards and in locker-rooms as much as in government offices and prisons.

I don't remember ever feeling lonely; in fact, on the rare occasions when I met other children I found their games and their talk far less interesting than the adventures and dialogues I read in my books.

I wanted to live among books.

At night, here in the library, the ghosts have voices.

Reading in bed is a self-centered act, immobile, free from ordinary social conventions, invisible to the world, and one that, because it takes place between the sheets, in the realm of lust and sinful idleness, has something of the thrill of things forbidden.

I always knew that I wanted to live with books, even as a child, because we traveled a lot. Home was the book to which I came back every evening.

I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books.