The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.

If we are to be aware of life while we are living it, we must have the courage to relinquish our hard-earned control of ourselves.

The creative impulse can be killed, but it cannot be taught. What a teacher can do... in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations.

In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten; we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.

To write for children at all is an act of faith.

Reading is a creative activity. You have to visualize the characters, you have to hear what the voices sound like.

In reading we must become creators. Once the child has learned to read alone, and can pick up a book without illustrations, he must become a creator, imagining the setting of the story, visualizing the characters, seeing facial expressions, hearing the inflection of voices. The author and the reader "know" each other; they meet on the bridge of words.