"These days, I've found power in bringing together people of all kinds in my bookstore. Democracy requires critical inquiry, which I now enable not through cable-news hits but by putting a copy of The Federalist Papers in the hands of a precocious middle-schooler or recommending Marcus Aurelius's Meditations to a neighbor trying to come to grips with the chaos of our political era.
"Being called Congressman remains the highest honor of my life. I still have deep admiration for members on both sides of the aisle. But the title 'bookshop owner' has unexpectedly brought a greater sense of purpose. The trappings of power are hard to beat, but they never gave me as much pleasure as putting a book in someone's hands and saying, 'Read this.' "
--Steve Israel, former Member of Congress and now owner of Theodore's Books, Oyster Bay, N.Y., in an About Face column "I Thought I'd Love Being a Congressman. I Prefer Owning a Bookshop," in the Wall Street Journal