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

All of us can think of a book... that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.

When people ask me what qualifies me to be a writer for children, I say I was once a child. But I was not only a child, I was, better still, a weird little kid, and though I would never choose to give my own children this particular preparation for life, there are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.

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

A library is a feast to which we are all invited.

Some folks are natural born kickers. They can always find a way to turn disaster into butter.

...One reason I became a writer was that I figured out that if you call yourself a writer, you can read all you want and people think that you are working.