I thought about adults. I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies...

I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.

I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.

A story only matters, I suspect, to the extent that the people in the story change.

But there was a kitten on my pillow, and it was purring in my face and vibrating gently with every purr, and, very soon, I slept.

Books were safer than other people anyway.

Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.

I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all.

Words save our lives, sometimes.

You get on with your own life. Lettie gave it to you. You just have to grow up and try and be worth it.

They were not my friends, after all. They were just the people I went to school with.

Christmas is a sacred festival.

A designer is only as good as the star who wears her clothes.

My mom used to tell me that the most valuable thing she owned was her library card. We were poor, but that's not what she was talking about. My mom knew that education opened doors and opened minds.

I do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself.

He who causes suffering shall suffer. There is no escape.

Imprudent restrictions often force youth farther than enticement would carry them; and careless limitation is frequently worse than no injunction.

What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue.

Life is most delightful on the downward slope.

He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May.

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth, Contagious blastments are are most imminent.