Faber tells Montag, “It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books.” What is it that Montag needs, and what is he searching for? When Montag returns to the firehouse for work, he is divided. What are the divisions within himself that he experiences?

Different readers might say slightly different things about what Montag is searching for. However, I think all of those things are likely focused on the general concept that Montag is searching for knowledge, meaning, and direction in life. When readers are first introduced to Montag, he is essentially the fireman that he is supposed to be. He loves to burn things, and he has zero qualms about burning books. Of course, this all starts to change. At one point, Montag is a part of a sequence in which he watches a woman die with her books instead of giving them up and living. The event is quite jarring for Montag. He realizes that there must be something powerful inside of books.

"You weren't there, you didn't see," he said. "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing."

As Montag continues to talk through his thoughts and feelings, he realizes that there is a person behind every book. Somebody had to think them up and write those thoughts down.

"It's not just the woman that died," said Montag. "Last night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before." He got out of bed. "It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! It's all over."

The idea that books contain more than words on a page is groundbreaking to Montag. Books contain ideas. They have powerful ideas that were put there by real people. This is what Faber is referring to. Faber knows that Montag is not in search of pages with words that are bound together. Faber knows that Montag is searching for and hungering after the ideas, inspiration, and thoughts that books carry inside of them.