Children have a lot more to worry about from the parents who raised them than from the books they read.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets.

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor.

I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

I will not send you [Raimondo], they might murder you, but I do not think they will do anything to Catherine - she is a woman and they have great respect for her.

The story of how I left Huckleberry begins -- as do all worthy stories -- with a goat

I am much younger now than I was at twelve or anyway less burdened.

Fear has nothing to do with cowardice. A fellow is only yellow when he lets his fear make him quit.

Having a Mary Poppins-themed birthday party when I was 5 - all my friends went in dresses, and I went as a chimney sweep. I was a real tomboy.

War and marketing have many similarities.

Isn't it wonderful to be an artist whose works have mostly been lost?

I went [to Hobby Lobby] this morning and bought the cutest little wicker basket to hold all my morning-after pills.

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

The world is cluttered up with unfinished business in the form of projects that might have been successful, if only at the tide point someone's patience had turned to active impatience.