School just speeds things up... Without school it might take 70 years before you wake up and are able to count.

When anything bad happens to me or someone I know, I always know who to blame. My no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.

I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.

Life will deal me many different hands, some good, some bad (maybe they've already been dealt), but from here on in, I'll be turning my own cards. —Alton Richard

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.

You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy.

You can't let anybody else tell you what your choices are. Sometimes they won't give you the right choice.