It was terrible when a single conversation with someone determined your whole future relationship.

I think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.

During the Gulf War, I remember two little third grade girls saying to me - after I read them some poems by writers in Iraq - 'You know, we never thought about there being children in Iraq before.' And I thought, 'Well those poems did their job, because now they'll think about everything a little bit differently.'

I keep thinking, we teach children to use language to solve their disputes. We teach them not to hit and fight and bite. Then look what adults do!

The writing of Kathleen McGookey shines more brightly than most fine things we feel pleasure to read. Celebrate it!

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.

Being good felt like a heavy coat, so I took it off.