The Paris Library Quotes
"Numbers floated round my head like stars. 823. The numbers were the key to a new life. 822. Constellations of hope. 841."
"In England, while Henry VIII was busy chopping off his wives’ heads, our King François was modernizing his library, which he opened to scholars."
"I held fast to these facts and figures, hoping they’d make me appear qualified to the Directress."
"In the distance, I could see the ebony dome of Saint-Augustin church."
"Religion, 200. Old Testament, 221. And the New Testament? I waited, but the number wouldn’t come."
"I loved being surrounded by stories, some as old as time, others published just last month."
"The only thing that made Rémy forget his worries—which was to say the worries of others—was a good book."
"There are darknesses in life and there are lights. You are one of the lights, the light of all light."
"Everyone knew of Miss Reeder. She wrote articles for newspapers and dazzled on the radio, inviting all to the Library—students, teachers, soldiers, foreigners, and French."
"The Library was more than bricks and books; its mortar was people who cared."
"I want to make sure everyone has that chance, most especially the people who feel different and need a place to call home."
"Folks said she came from France. Wanting to know more about her, I studied the encyclopedia entries on Paris."
"I wanted to know how French words would feel in my mouth."
"I loved novels like The Secret Garden. My twin brother was the one interested in the news."
"Aunt Caro and I had created categories—dead authors, alive ones, foreign, French, etc.—to avoid having to decide."
"I opened to a page in the middle, where the author wasn’t trying to impress me."
"French kiss. French toast. French fries. All the good things were French."
"French songs had to be better than the country music that played on the only radio station in town."
"I can’t believe you wore that faded smock to church. What will people think?"
"I wish I could flip the pages of my life faster, to know if I’d see Paul again."
"His royal collection was the beginning of the Bibliothèque Nationale."
"I’m Odile Souchet. Sorry to be late. I was early, and I opened a book…"
"My favorite dead author is Dostoevsky, because I like his character Raskolnikov. He’s not the only one who wants to hit someone over the head."
"You said what you felt, not what you thought I wanted to hear."
"Miss Reeder’s gaze—intelligent, steady—met mine."
"No man ever steps in the same river twice."
"The one thing we can count on is change."
"What’s the point of studying laws when no one respects them?"
"The world’s gone crazy, and no one gives a damn."
"Don’t know why you bang on about the war!"
"I’ve got a tight deadline for this article."
"The only thing that’s stayed the same is that awful haircut of yours."
"She knew things that nobody had ever told her."
"The world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether."
"She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up."
"I’ll be damned before I sit by those perfumed Jews."
"You’re an unpleasant man who’s offended a great many people."
"We can ask forgiveness for a sin at confession."
"I don’t want the children to be influenced."
"It’s such a mysterious place, the land of tears."
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know."
"I’m not sure one should expect something when giving."
"France can be a woman’s dream, but the reality takes some getting used to."
"I’ll never want you to doubt my feelings."
"Being alone in the hospital was the lowest point in my life."
"I didn’t want to kill the chap. Merely warn him away."
"They can be rash. They’re rushing all over France to describe war efforts. But if one is rude, whack him over the head."
"But seriously, why books. Because no other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures."
"We all have a book that’s changed us forever. One that let us know that we’re not alone."
"Here pause: pause at once. There is enough said. Trouble no quiet, kind heart; leave sunny imaginations hope."
"Help spread the word. Help get the books that you’ve loved to our soldiers."
"Books are like people; without contact, they cease to exist."
"This book is a map, each chapter a journey. Sometimes the way is dark, sometimes it leads us to the light. I’m afraid of where we’re going."
"When you consider their banned-book list includes hundreds of works, it’s a small price to pay."
"Delivering books will be our way of resisting."
"One cannot plan more than a day in advance, so what the future holds, I do not know."
"Books and ideas are like blood; they need to circulate, and they keep us alive."
"We’re doing a good piece of work, considering the handicaps."
"Books skip over this part. It had felt perfect, and more than that—right."
"I wanted to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget."
"The only thing you can change is the way you see him."
"Think of the story of Mahomet and the mountain!"
"It’s not easy when you have to stand in line for food before going to work."
"We’re not together, but we needn’t be distant."
"It’s a gift to spend time with your best friend. I can’t tell you how much I miss mine."
"Our nest had vanished, the place we could hold each other; the place we could say anything, or nothing at all; the place we could forget the war."
"Afterward, still naked, we visited the apartment as if it were a museum, admiring the Chinese vases on the mantel, the Old Masters on the wall."
"You didn’t need to be abrupt," I told him. "She’s like crotchety Aunt March in Little Women. Gruff on the outside, but kind deep down."
"All that glitters isn’t integrity," I said.
"I notice some subscribers are foreigners. One of our many points of pride. Everyone feels at home here."
"I’m telling you, you needn’t worry." She peered toward the hall to make sure no servants milled about, before whispering, "I met someone."
"I was afraid to go to Nazi headquarters, but as I considered the leather-bound books on the Countess’s shelves, the novels I delivered to subscribers, and Professor Cohen’s manuscript hidden in the safe, I decided that words were worth fighting for, that they were worth the risk."
"The cadence of the Library took over, and we spent the day solving puzzles."
Life will go back to normal." "We've said that for years. What if this is normal?" "Nothing lasts forever.
"I wanted to console her, but didn’t know what to say."
"Love will come and go and come again. But if you’re lucky to have a true friend, treasure her. Don’t let her go."
"A happy marriage doesn’t depend on luck, but on intentions."
"Try to accept people for who they are, not who you want them to be."