When I read a good book, it's like traveling the world without ever leaving my chair.

Grandma, how old is she?" "Oh I don't know." Grandma said. "You'd have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple.

I read because one life isn't enough and in the pages of a book, I can be anybody.

I'm so far gone that I'm telling the truth. It sounds like a foreign language.

September 11 We thought we'd outdistanced history Told our children it was nowhere near; Even when history struck Columbine, It didn't happen here. We took down the maps in the classroom, And when they were safely furled, We told the young what they wanted to hear, That they were immune from a menacing world. But history isn't a folded-up map, Or an unread textbook tome; Now we know history's a fireman's child Waiting at home alone.

Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.