the story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light.

This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness.

Reading a story should be a fabulous, wonderful thing. The most important thing that parents can do for kids is to read with them and to let their kids see them reading books for their own pleasure.

You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.

Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.

There can be a lot of longevity in the repetition of things being told again and again in a variety of ways.

Everything when I was a kid was illustrated.