As a shy, introverted, scholarly child (long ago) I don't know what I would have done without libraries! My family moved often. I was always the new kid in town. The library always offered me my first and most important friendship: the place where I felt right at home. I still feel that way today, about libraries.

It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.

I write books because I have always been fascinated by stories and language, and because I love thinking about what makes people tick. Writing a story... 'The Giver' or any other... is simply an exploration of the nature of behavior: why people do what they do, how it affects others, how we change and grow, and what decisions we make along the way.

Think only on the climb. Think on what you control

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

That's why they call you Seer. You see more than most.

There is something about that moment, when literature becomes accessible, and a door of the world opens.