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.

It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.

I can't believe there will ever be a time when the book is truly obsolete. It is the perfect technology and feeds the soul.

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

What I have come to believe is that joy is the twin sister of gratitude. I am most joyful when I am most grateful.

Reading asks that you bring your whole life experience and your ability to decode the written word and your creative imagination to the page and be a co-author with the writer, because the story is just squiggles on the page unless you have a reader.

It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.