In all your getting, get understanding.

Racism doesn't know color, death doesn't know age, and pain doesn't know might.

Mama was always saying I was a brain snob, that I didn't like people who didn't think. I didn't know if that was snobby. Who wanted to walk around explaining everything to people all the time?

I do believe that books can change lives and give people this kind of language they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Sometimes it seems as though not a moment has moved, but then you look up and you're already old or you already have a household of kids or you look down and see your feet are miles and miles away from the rest of you—and you realize you've grown up.

My favorite reader is one that revisits books and gets something new out of them each time.

No matter how big you get, it's still okay to cry because everybody's got a right to their own tears.