My writing comes from ideas that make a sound in my heart.

Trouble can always be borne when it is shared.

I woke up one morning and realized that what I wanted to say to everyone - children, young people, adults - was: Read for your life.

...I just gave up trying to be a Christian... Let's face it, I ain't got the knack for holiness. Besides, I didn't have the slightest little desire to join the likes of Reverend Pelham at the dinner table for fourteen minutes, much less at the banquet table of Heaven eternally. Eternity is a mighty long time to be stuck with people who judge every word you say and think and condemn most of what you do. It struck me as pretty miserable company. And if Reverend Pelham was the kind of company God preferred to keep, well, I just hoped they'd be happy together.

Teachers have almost stopped reading aloud to their classes because of the pressure of testing and tight curricula, but it is the books we read together and talk about together that bring us closer together.

You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.

Lord, let me heed the angels you put in my path.