I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person.

But then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don't want that. And that's the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me--and you-to lift that burden from themselves.

So many of my books, I don't want to say they have messages, but they have important things to say.

It be better, I think, to climb out in search of something, instead of hating, what you're leaving.

It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.

For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure.

The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. [from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]