quotation from Susan Orlean's "The Library" (2018)

"I was struck by ... how necessary, and how full of hope it is, to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that all these stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another, and to our past, and to what is still to come ... This is why I wanted to write this book, to tell about a place that I love that doesn't belong to me but feels like it is mine, and how that feels marvelous and exceptional. 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."