I think it's important to remember that writing is a gift and our stories are gifts to ourselves and to the world and sometimes giving isn't always the easiest thing to do but it comes back.

There is something so deeply visceral about libraries for me-rooms and rooms full of people dreaming and remembering.

Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.

But on paper, things can live forever. On paper, a butterfly never dies.

People are going to judge you all the time no matter what you do...Don't worry about other people. Worry about you.

I do believe that books can change lives and give people this kind of language they wouldn't have had otherwise.

I believe in one day and someday and this perfect moment called Now.

Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen.

The empty swing set reminds us of this-- that bad won't be bad forever, and what is good can sometimes last a long, long time.

I feel like the world stopped. And I got off...and then it started spinning again, but too fast for me to hop back on. I feel like I'm still trying to get a...to get some kind of foothold on living

In all your getting, get understanding.

Democracy is an illusion in which we all believe.

Women, you overheated dipsomaniacs, never passing up a chance to wangle a drink, a great boon to bartenders but a bane to us--not to mention our crockery and our woolens!

I'll wire the International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers and give them the number stamped on the bird's leg ring.

False ideals cannot be shattered by criticism. Right ideals must take up the battle against them.

It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

With mind distracted, never thinking, "Death is coming," To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life, And then to come out empty--it is a tragic error. (116) trans by Robert Thurman

People in the know say The Giver was the first young adult dystopian novel.

I want to focus on my salad.

I don't know if I want to go to New York. They'll have to pay me a lot more money because I like it here in Kansas City.

If you read my books, especially the Star Trek books and the Quest for Tomorrow books, you'll see in them the core theme of the basic humanistic questions that Star Trek asked.