“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”

“Here’s to books, the cheapest vacation you can buy.”

“Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”

“How lucky I am to have known somebody and something that saying goodbye to is so damned awful.”

“The planet is fine. The people are fucked.”

“Never laugh at live dragons.”

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”