What makes a good book? Scholars and critics have been debating that question for decades. I like books that touch my head and my heart at the same time.

Readers re-create any story to suit their own needs. They re-clothe the story in their own shirts. Put simply: just as we write the story we need to write, they read the story they need to read.

A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a different culture, a different tongue for a child who has already mastered Elvish, respected Puddleglums, or fallen under the spell of dark-skinned Ged?

You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me.

A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.

Exercise the writing muscle every day.

Storytelling is our oldest form of remembering the promises we have made to one another and to our various gods, and the promises given in return; it is a way of recording our human emotions and desires and taboos.