As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claws.

When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.

I believe in walking out of a museum before the paintings you've seen begin to run together. How else can you carry anything away with you in your mind's eye?

Boys mystified me, although I dreamed vaguely of men.

It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.

Then you must say to her, 'Madame, I observe that your heart is broken. Allow me to repair it for you.

You are a total stranger and you want to take my library book.