God bless Interlibrary Loan. I pay a lot of library fines. In the case of 'A Single Shard,' I was using books that hadn't been checked out in 30 years, so I didn't feel too bad.

A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.

Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

My first publication was a haiku in a children's magazine when I was 9 years old. I received one dollar for it! I gave the check to my dad for Christmas, and he framed it and hung it over his desk.

Reading for writers is like training for athletes.

I can give advice to anyone interested in writing in one word: Read! I think it's much more important to be a reader than to be a writer!

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

I used to sit home with my computer and write. After the Newbery, I probably spend more than half my time on the road.

What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.

Opportunity rarely knocks until you are ready. And few people have ever been really ready without receiving opportunity's call.

The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now if I was a grave digger or even a hangman there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.

The music that I write is often not necessarily full of doom and gloom. You'll notice in most of the darkest songs, the music is actually pretty peaceful and lulling.

Humor is proof that everything is going to be all right with God nevertheless.

A person who loves community tends to destroy it. But a person who loves people creates community wherever he goes.

There may be wonder in money, but, dear God, there is money in wonder.

The idea that you can make love and not war really is pretty neat. That thing in Korea, the thing in Israel - that's all over the world. There must be a new way of thinking.

The idea of the nest in the bird's mind, where does it come from?

Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap