Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.