We are all historians in our small way.

Yes, the stories are dangerous, she was right. A book is a magic carpet that flies you off elsewhere. A book is a door. You open it. You step through. Do you come back?

Growing up is difficult. Strangely, even when we have stopped growing physically, we seem to have to keep on growing emotionally, which involves both expansion and shrinkage, as some parts of us develop and others must be allowed to disappear...Rigidity never works; we end up being the wrong size for our world.

To me, life, for all its privations, is a luminous thing. You have to risk it.

It is the nature of walls that they should fall.

Don't regret your life, child, it will pass soon enough.

Of course, people will laugh at you, but people laugh at a great many things so there is no need to take it personally.