It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together.

Today is declared an unscheduled holiday.

When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.

There's much more. There's all that goes beyond – all ... that is Elsewhere – and all that goes back, and back, and back. I received all of those, when I was selected. And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future.

I see all of them. All the colors.

I'm not terribly conversant with children's literature in general. I tend to read books for adults, being an adult.

The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same. "And they lived happily ever after.