“A librarian names Miss Truman snatched me from the jaws of ruin and it’s too late now to thank her. I’m not the first person to notice that we rarely get around to thanking those who’ve helped us most. Salvation is such a heady thin the temptation is to dance gasping on the shore, shouting that we are still alive, till our forgotten savior has long gone under. Or else sit quietly, sideswiped and embarrassed mumbling that we really did know pretty much how to swim. But now that I see the wreck that could have been, without Miss Richey, I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian that crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.”
— Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never.