He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.

As a shy, introverted, scholarly child (long ago) I don't know what I would have done without libraries! My family moved often. I was always the new kid in town. The library always offered me my first and most important friendship: the place where I felt right at home. I still feel that way today, about libraries.

The writer after all is only half the book, the other half is the reader.

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.

I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste,in fear, and had brought about their own destruction

She fell asleep, and it was a sleep as thin as the night clouds, dotted with dreams that came and went like the stars.

It's just that... without the memories it's all meaningless.