Wood may remain twenty years in the water, but it is still not a fish.

It's never perfect when I write it down the first time, or the second time, or the fifth time. But it always gets better as I go over it and over it.

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.

Ideas are the cheapest part of the writing. They are free. The hard part is what you do with ideas you've gathered.

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?

Fairy Tales always have a happy ending.' That depends... on whether you are Rumpelstiltskin or the Queen.

Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.