Like a good American, I wanted to sue somebody. But like a good librarian, I just sat at my desk and waited.

These were wise, modern children, and they knew: a mother could be a witch, a child could be a criminal. A librarian could be a thief.

And to love such a librarian requires a surrendering to her eccentricities, a bowing to her pathological quietness, an obeisance to a reticence that is utterly untreatable. If you cannot commit to this sort of dedication, then let her be. Let her wander in wonder among her books and live out her days in her own world without you.

Librarians save lives: by handing the right book, at the right time, to a kid in need

When you talk to an author - to any artist, really - you learn something about how they do what they do. I've never come away from that kind of experience feeling disillusioned, as if the magician had explained his tricks. I always find a greater appreciation for the form.

Sometimes I wish I could go back through time to meet Proust, just so I could give him my asthma inhaler. The poor guy.