Quotes from Kristin Harmel

He had taught her to love reading, one of the greatest gifts a parent could give a child, and in doing so, he had opened the world to her.

Life doesn't work out the way we plan, but maybe it works out the way it's supposed to after all.

Remember that God's plan for you might be different than the plan you have for yourself.

You can't judge a person by their language or their place of origin—though it seems that each new generation insists upon learning that lesson for itself.

anyone who saw the magic in books had to be good.

Some days I wake up and think, How did I get here? It's like one day, you just realize you're not young anymore, and you already made your choices, and now it's too late to change anything.

we are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves.

Ah. I should have known. You're one of us. … You're someone who finds herself in the pages,"…

There's something almost miraculous about seeing a child's eyes light up when you hand him a book that intrigues him. I've always thought that it's those children—the ones who realize that books are magic—who will have the brightest lives.

that in moments like this, it doesn't matter what you were born to be. It matters what you choose to become.

She doesn't understand what it means to love books so passionately that you would die without them, that you would simply stop breathing, stop existing. It is quite beyond me, in fact, why she became a librarian in the first place.

In the times of greatest darkness, the light always shines through, because there are people who stand up to do brave, decent things.

parents make all sorts of errors, because our ability to raise our children is always colored by the lives we've lived before they came along.

You have to be absolutely sure. Otherwise, regret will grow in spaces you don't even know are there.

Because books bring us to another time and place," the woman said as she handed over Eva's pens and accepted the francs Eva gave her. "And you look as if you need that.

As long as there are stars in the sky, I will love you.

I've always thought that it's those children—the ones who realize that books are magic—who will have the brightest lives.

We're defined by who we are in our hearts, who we choose to be on this earth.

Life turns on the decisions we make, the single moments that transform everything.

Yes. There is one God, and he lives in the sky, and he hears all of us. It is just that here on earth, we are confused about how to believe in him. But what does it matter, as long as we trust he is there?

My room is lined with books, most of them stacked in precarious piles on the bowing bookshelves Louis assembled years ago. They are filled with other people's stories, and I've spent my life disappearing into them. Sometimes, when the nights are dark and silent and I'm alone, I wonder if I would have survived without the escape their pages offered me from reality. Then again, perhaps they just gave me an excuse to duck out of my own life.

People should always help others in need; there was no other way for the human race to survive.

Her mother had once told her that some people you meet are meant to be a part of your world forever, but some are meant only to change the course of your life and then move on.

Life changes you, even if you don't realize it while it's happening, and it turns out you can't take back the years that have passed by.