If you read to your kids you'll make readers out of them, partly because they'll associate reading with good parent time.

Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it's going.

Once you duct-tape a Ziploc bag to a man's chest, there's no going back.

The worst thing about the fantasies of the mentally ill is that they're so damned consistent. They never let up. They never give you any rest.

One mind can think only of its own questions; it rarely surprises itself.

The tribe is whatever we believe it is. If we say the tribe is all the Little Ones in the forest, and all the trees, then that is what the tribe is. Even though some of the oldest trees here came from warriors of two different tribes, fallen in battle. We become one tribe because we say we're one tribe." Ender marveled at his mind, this small raman [member of another sentient species]. How few humans were able to grasp this idea, or let it extend beyond the narrow confines of their tribe, their family, their nation.

Peace. That's what salaam means. Peace unto you." The words brought forth an echo from Ender's memory. His mother's voice reading to him softly, when he was very young. ... The kiss, the word, the peace were with him still. I am only what I remember, and Alai is my friend in a memory so intense that they can't tear him out. Like Valentine, the strongest memory of all.