Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually.

You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.

A nation becomes what its young people read in their youth. Its ideals are fashioned then, its goals strongly determined.

The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

During my lifetime I have met dozens of writers and photographers in dozens of different countries. But I have encountered no one who could both write and photograph with the artistry of Robert Vavra.

Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.

America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.