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.

In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.

I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.

We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn't need defending.

Refusing to accept God's love because we're unworthy - of course we're unworthy! - is another golden calf.

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

Great art always transcends its culture, while lesser art merely reflects it.