Iwas not a reader at all, not until I discovered 'The Hobbit.' That changed my life. It gave me the courage to read. It led me to the 'Lord of the Rings' series. And once I'd read that, I knew I could read anything because I had just read thousands of pages.

It's our memories that make us who we are. Without them, we're nothing. If that means we have to hurt sometimes, it's worth it.

We can only lose what we have first claimed.

The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.

There are far too many people for us to think about each of them during our short stay on earth—like the thousands of books in a library we haven’t time to read in an afternoon. But this is no excuse to cease browsing. For every now and then, we find that one book that reaches us deep inside and introduces us to ourselves. And, in someone else’s story, we come to understand our own.

I've never understood why people said 'in your own words.' Who else's words would I use?

The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain.