“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public w...”

“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life.”

“When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language...”

“That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”

“England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare,but the Bible made England.”

“Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.”

“All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.”

“Great novels are above all great fairy tales . . . literature does not tell the truth but makes it up.”

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”

“A book is no mere book anymore than man can be mere man. A book was like an individual man, unmatched and with no cause...”

“What people value in their books—and thus what they count as literature—really tells you more about them than it does ab...”

“A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the des...”