February is just plain malicious. It knows your defenses are down.

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.

Death is very mysterious to us. One moment someone is there with us, and the next moment they're not.

As I look back on what I have written, I can see that the very persons who have taken away my time are those who have given me something to say.

The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.

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

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