You think it's so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain't.

Our fundamental task as human beings is to seek out connections-to exercise our imaginations.

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.

Peace is not won by those who fiercely guard their differences, but by those who with open minds and hearts seek out connections.

Nothing smelled so good or danced so well as a birch fire.

Church always seemed the same. Jess could tune it out the same way he tuned out school, with his body standing up and sitting down in unison with the rest of the congregation but his mind numb and floating, not really thinking or dreaming but at least free.

We are trying to communicate that which lies in our deepest heart, which has no words, which can only be hinted at through the means of a story. And somehow, miraculously, a story that comes from deep in my heart calls from a reader that which is deepest in his or her heart, and together from our secret hidden selves we create a story that neither of us could have told alone.