In the morning I'm like a snake in the spring: I need to lie out on a warm rock and let the sun sink into me before I can start wiggling around and get on with the day.

...if a child waited to speak until all the grown-ups settled down and gave her some room to say her piece, the most important things would never get said.

Sadness is a powerful foe, maybe harder to keep down than happiness.

I closed my eyes, put my right hand on top of the book, and passed it lightly across the cover. It was cool and smooth like a stone from the bottom of the brook, and it stilled me. A whole other world is inside there, I thought to myself, and that's where I want to be.

There is never enough time for fun.

...all of a sudden I felt filled up again, so that my heart might come up my throat. And I was thinking how that can come over you, out of nowhere, and if it wasn't such a fine feeling, it might almost be frightening. Like there's more love and good thoughts and powerful things inside of you than one body can hold.

We don't own the earth. We are the earth's caretakers...we take care of it and all the things on it. And when we're done with it, it should be left better than we found it.