“Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature”

“Boundaries keep people out mine served only to keep me in. ”

“Literature for me was a magnificent destiny for which I was not yet fully prepared. 76”

“I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.”

“Women share their sadness, thought Edith. Their joy they like to show off to one another. Victory, triumph over the odds, calls for an audience. And that air of bustle and exigence sometimes affect...”

“Not everyone is born to fulfill an heroic role. The only realistic ambition is to live in the present. And sometimes, quite often in fact, this is more than enough to keep one busy. Time, which was...”

“my first recommendation to people in charge of science education is, more money for public libraries and museums. Public libraries and museums ought to be as common as schools.”

“Society was the only threat to the sanctity of selfhood: an unpatroned library was an orderly library.”

“If the library in the morning suggests an echo of the severe and reasonable wishful order of the world, the library at night seems to rejoice in the world's essential, joyful muddle. ”