Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting.

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

I see all of them. All the colors.

Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.

There will always be a place for bunnies to talk in rhyme, but that's not what I do.

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.