"I ate them like salad, books were my sandwich for lunch, my tiffin and dinner and midnight munch. I tore out the pages, ate them with salt, doused them with relish, gnawed on the bindings, turned the chapters with my tongue! Books by the dozen, the score and the billion. I carried so many home I was hunchbacked for years. Philosophy, art history, politics, social science, the poem, the essay, the grandiose play, you name 'em. I ate 'em. And then...and then..." The Fire Chief's voice fades. Montag Prompts: "And then?" "Why, life happened to me." The Fire Chief shuts his eyes to remember."
— Ray Bradbury