I have to conclude that fiction is better at 'the truth' than a factual record.

If she had been left alone she would have gone on, in her own way, enjoying herself thoroughly, until people found one day that she had turned imperceptibly into one of those women who have become old without ever having been middle aged: a little withered, a little acid, hard as nails, sentimentally kindhearted, and addicted to religion or small dogs.

With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.

When the print revolution occurred 400 years ago, human beings lost a certain mental capacity, including a sense of memory. In Africa today, you meet people who still carry everything in their heads, the way we used to. We rely on telephone books, address books. We have to look up everything.

... if you have nothing, you are free to choose among dreams and fantasies.

There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.