I’m on a train in England heading for a new school full of magic and mystery. Then I’m in Prince Edward Island, Canada, peering at a lake of shining waters. Or in a small garden, nursing plants back to life. Or on a farm with a very special pig and spider. In case you haven’t guessed, I didn’t exactly participate in any of these experiences. But I was there in a different sense. Ever since I was five years old, books have been my refuge, my escape from the world. In books, the rules of the real world don’t apply. Anything can happen.

Here are 16 quotes that describe the magic of being a book lover/reader/literary nerd/total bibliophile.

1. "When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

Meg Ryan, "You've Got Mail"

2. "Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

Neil Gaiman, "Coraline"

3. "I'm old fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised."

Wislawa Szymborska, "Nonrequired Reading"

4. "All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen."

Roald Dahl, "Matilda"

5. "A book is a dream that you hold in your hands."

Neil Gaiman

6. "In books I have traveled, not only into other worlds, but into my own."

Anna Quindlen, "How Reading Changed My Life"

7. "Without literature, life is hell."

Charles Bukowski

8. "I surrendered myself to books, not because I needed their words, but because in their words purpose would find me."

Nadia Janice Brown

9. "For me, it's not about the amount of books you read. It's about reading the ones that make you happy."

Unknown

10. "Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river."

Lisa See, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"

11. "So much of what I see reminds me of something I've read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Meg Ryan, "You've Got Mail"

12. "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island."

Walt Disney

13. "Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that have never been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way."

Stansław Lem

14. "Sometimes, when I have to do something I don't want to do, I pretend I'm a character from a book. It's easier to know what they would do."

Cassandra Clare, "Clockwork Angel"

15. "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."

Charles W. Eliot

16. "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you."

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, "The Shadow of the Wind"