I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and the destruction of death.

I guess real maturity, which most of us never achieve, is when you realize that you're not the center of the universe.

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

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

Reading has made such a profound difference to my life. I'm sure I became a writer because of the power of literature in my own life.

Crazy people who are judged to be harmless are allowed an enormous amount of freedom ordinary people are denied.

Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.