Do I have to talk to insane people?" "You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.

Individual words, sounds, squiggles on paper with no meanings other than those with which our imagination can clothe them.

A surfeit of information often hides an untruth,” he said, with annoying clarity.

The Goliath Corporation was to altruism what Genghis Khan was to soft furnishings.

The industrial age had only just begun; the planet had reached its Best Before date.

If it weren't for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no Van Gough, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong.

Do you really think you'd win a PR war against a bunch of committed librarians?' He thought about this, but he knew I was right. The libraries were a treasured institution and so central to everyday life that government and commerce rarely did anything that might upset them.Some say they were more powerful than the military, or, if not, they were certainly quieter. As they say: Don't mess with librarians. Only they use a stronger word than 'mess'.