“Books are not lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on shelves!”

“Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive, in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.”

“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”

“Genres are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers known where to shelve a book.”

“His books are kept on freestanding shelves hung at different angles on a sea-green wall. They defy gravity, as good books should.”

“Books everywhere. On the shelves and on the small space above the rows of books and all along the floor and under chairs, books that I have read, books that I have not read.”

“One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper.”

“Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.”

“Your borrowers of books—those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.”

“Don't ask where the rest of this book is!" It is a shrill cry that comes from an undefined spot among the shelves. "All books continue in the beyond…”