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.

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.

Mama was crying, and the rain made it seem as if the whole world was crying.

Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.

You eat canned tuna fish and you absorb protein. Then, if you're lucky, someone give you Dover Sole and you experience nourishment. It's the same with books.

And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular.

The writer after all is only half the book, the other half is the reader.