330 Quotes by Susan Orlean

The fire in the library was colorless.

I was a Scholar and Frontiersman and a Two-fisted He-Person and that I went to the roots of that Sissy Library and made it, within two years, an Institution of Character, a He-Library, of which we were all proud.

Writing about someone well known removes that obligation of defending it as a subject, but it also means that some of the surprise and freshness is already gone. It’s so different – in some ways much harder for me.

Having animals in the city is entirely different from having animals out in the country. For one thing, it’s more social. When you live on lots of acres without neighbors within a stone’s throw, your dog-walks are usually solitary rambles over hill and dale.

Writing about fashion forces you to overcome the nagging feeling that fashion doesn’t “matter”, that it’s trivial or fleeting. I just look at it anthropologically, which is different from the way I’d write about art.

On a library bookshelf, thought progresses in a way that is logical but also dumbfounding, mysterious, irresistible.

I have come to believe that books have souls – why else would I be so reluctant to throw one away?

All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen.

In many towns, the library is the only place you can browse through physical books.