There in the city's steam-and-smoke-smudged harbor is the most extraordinary sight of all: a great copper-clad lady with a torch in one hand and a book in the other. It is not a statesman or a god or a war hero who welcomes us to this new world. It is but an ordinary woman lighting the way- a lady offering us the liberty to pursue our dreams if we've the courage to begin.
Libba BrayPerhaps this is how girls fall -- not in some crime of enchantment at the hands of a wicked ne'er-do-well, a grand before and after in which they are innocent victims who have no say in the matter. Perhaps they simply are kissed and want to kiss back. Perhaps they even kiss first. And why should they not?
Libba BrayLibraries are the torch of the world, illuminating the path when it feels too dark to see. We mustn't allow that torch to be extinguished.
Libba BrayWhat Hamlet suffers from is a lack of zombies. Let us say Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show upโHo-HO! Now youโve got something that stirs the, um, something that stirs things that are stirrable. BOOM! A pack of ravenous flesh-eaters breaks open their heads and sucks out their eyeballs. No need for iambic pentameter because they are grunting, groaning annihilators of humanity with no time for meter. Youโre not asleep in the back of English class anymore, are you? This is what Iโm talking about. Zombies. Learn it, live it, love it.
Libba BrayEve didn't choose to eat the apple. She was tempted by the serpent." "Yes," I argue, thoughts coming out half-formed. "But...she didn't have to take a bite. She chose to.
Libba BrayI feel like I swallowed a Magritte. Like on the inside, I'm made of clouds and floating eyes, green apples, and slowly rising men in bowler hats.
Libba BrayHeaven's brightest and best-loved angel, who was cast out for inspiring a rebellion against God. Having lost Heaven, Lucifer and his rebel angels vowed to continue fighting here on earth." "I don't understand why he had to fight. He was already in heaven." "True. But he wasn't content to serve. He wanted more." "He had all he could ask for, didn't he?" Ann asks. "Exactly." Miss Moore states. "He had to ask. He was dependent upon someone else's whim. It's a terrible thing to have no power of one's own. To be denied.
Libba BrayHow do you invent a religion?โ Evie asked. Will looked over the top of his spectacles. โYou say, โGod told me the following,โ and then wait for people to sign up.
Libba BrayThere is a hideous invention called the Dewey Decimal System. And you have to look up your topic in books and newspapers. Pages upon pages upon pagesโฆโ Uncle Will frowned. โDidnโt they teach you how to go about research in that school of yours?โ โNo. But I can recite โThe Battle Hymn of the Republicโ while making martinis.โ โI weep for the future.โ โThereโs where the martinis come in.
Libba Bray