Badass Heart

“It wasn't that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured, collected here, and in all libraries -- and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well. In the library, time is dammed up--not just stopped but saved.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

“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

“Now I understand that all great teachers love us. This is essentially what makes them great. I also understand that it is this love that never dies, and that, having once experienced it, we have the confidence always exhibited by well-loved humans, to continue extending this same love.”
― Alice Walker, We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness

“Public libraries in the United States outnumber McDonald’s; they outnumber retail bookstores two to one.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book