As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.

You gotta know someone cares about you, or you just give up.

We humans have had from time unknown the compulsion to name things and thus to be able to deal with them. The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it. And in ancient thought the name itself has power, so that to know someone's name is to have a certain power over him. And in some societies, as you know, there was a public name and a real or secret name, which would not be revealed to others.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading.

My heart is heavy, she thought. It’s not just a saying. It is what is—heavy, a great stone lodged in my breast, pressing down my whole being. How can I even stand straight and look out upon the world? I am doubled over into myself and, for all the weight, find only emptiness.

There are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.

If you could hold your nose to avoid a stink, or close your eyes to cut out a sight, why not shut off your brain to avoid a thought?