Katie Graham > Katie's Quotes

“The publicness of the public library is an increasingly rare commodity. It becomes harder all the time to think of places that welcome everyone and don’t charge any money for that warm embrace.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“I am of the considered opinion that for every person, there exists a book that will sing to them. I trust that you will find yours.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Mask Falling

“Problem isn’t that there’s not enough heroes in the world, problem is too many dumb people assume they are one.”
― David Wong, What the Hell Did I Just Read

“His brain sits before its cash register again, charging him for old shames as if he has not paid before”
― Andrew Sean Greer, Less

“We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it.”
― Richard Siken, Crush

“Asked how it was that he could do so much and accomplish so much, he said, “I’ve learned to use every one of all the odds and ends of the time.”
― David McCullough, The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West

“Elend: I kind of lost track of time…
Breeze: For two hours?
Elend: There were books involved.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“He always thinks because I’m reading, I’m not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted.”
― Pierce Brown, Golden Son

“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human or otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry and watch the sycamore trees leaf out in June. When my breastbone starts to hurt, and my throat tightens and tears well in my eyes, I want to look away from feeling. I want to deflect with irony or anything else that will keep me from feeling directly. We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“I'll never again speak to many of the people who loved me into this moment, just as you will never speak to many of the people who loved you into your now. So we raise a glass to them--and hope that perhaps somewhere, they are raising a glass to us.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“Humans are not the protagonists of this planet's story. If there is a main character, it is life itself, which makes of earth and starlight something more than earth and starlight. But in the age of the Anthropocene, humans tend to believe, despite all available evidence, that the world is here for our benefit.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“In the land where everyone screams, everyone is also slightly deaf.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“More twisted than a librarian’s love life (trust me, they’re a strange bunch),”
― Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

“Things don’t have to stay as what they started out as.”
― Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes

“Shut up, you insufferable shitweasel,”
― Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes

“There is a time for any fledgling artist where one's taste exceeds one's abilities. The only way to get through this period is to make things anyway.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“Alakazam BIOS discography Philadelphia a la disco," I said, stomping right in front of the invaders, hands on my hips. "Nitrogen! I.E. polyester Garfunkle'n Garfield!”
― Brandon Sanderson

“Yazad ushered us into a storehouse populated by sacks of grain and prowling cats. One rubbed against my leg, then nipped at me when I tried to pet it. Cats. The same in every dimension.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

“I belong in a library. I’ve always belonged at the library.”
― James Patterson, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading

“Libraries level the playing field. They’re free and open to the public. All are welcome. Our doors are open. Come in and learn to become your best self. Follow your dreams and reach your true potential. Let your reach exceed your grasp. Whatever book you want to read, it’s free on the honor system. It’s hard to imagine anywhere else in our society so devoted to the concept of everyone being completely equal.”
― James Patterson, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading

“WHAT FLAMES COULD NOT CONSUME,
NEVER SHALL BE EXTINGUISHED”
― Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes

“Art is the result of facing almost no survival pressure at all. It’s the product of leisure time. Our big brains, the most complex instruments known in the universe, have been released from the vigilance of evading predators and seeking sustenance, permitting our imagination to gambol and explore, to dream while awake, to share visions of God. Art signals our freedom. It exists because we’ve won the evolutionary war.”
― Michael Finkel, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

“I didn’t need another cat. At this point in my brilliant career as an itinerant educator I could barely afford to feed myself. But then, no one ever needs a cat these days. That’s not why we have cats. We have cats because they amuse us and because otherwise our clothes would lack the texture only cat hair can provide.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“Maybe I’m just better with cats than people, and cats seem to know that.” “That’s the toxoplasmosis talking.” “I’m sure it is.”
― John Scalzi, Starter Villain

“The cruelty of strangers never usually upsets me, but the kindness of strangers is oddly devastating.”
― Marianne Cronin, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot