I have been fortunate. I have done so many things and enjoyed so many things and had such a great life, not to imply that it is ending, but that there aren't many things that I feel I have left undone.

What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?

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

Genius disregards the boundaries of propriety. Genius is permitted to shout if shouting is productive.

So actually, there could be parents-of-the-parents-of-the-parents-of-the parents?

He was free to enjoy the breathless glee that overwhelmed him: the speed, the clear cold air, the total silence, the feeling of balance and excitement and peace.

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]