In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy. There's a cruelty to childhood, there's an anger.

And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming wild things.

'Hansel and Gretel' is one of the scariest stories ever written! Psychotic mother; stupid, inane father.

And the walls became the world all around.

There must be more to life than having everything.

I know that if there’s a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart.

Emeralds,' said the rabbit. 'Emeralds make a lovely gift.

Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.

I wish you all good things. Live your life, live your life, live your life.

A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.

And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!

Fate never promises to tell you everything up front. You aren't always shown the path in life you're supposed to take. But sometimes when you're really lucky, you meet someone with a map.

Not all of us have to possess earth-shaking talent. Just common sense and love will do.

I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it's nice to be wanted as a writer.

The grand jury's job is not to weigh the evidence from both sides; it is only to decide whether there is enough evidence on one side to bring a person to trial.

All chess players know what a combination is. Whether one makes it oneself, or is its victim, or reads of it, it stands out from the rest of the game and stirs one's admiration.

Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on; 'Twas not given for thee alone, Pass it on; Let it travel down the years, Let it wipe another's tears. Pass it on.

The gene as the basis of life.

Teach the legal rights of trees, the nobility of hills; respect the beauty of singularity, the value of solitude.

Balm of the summer night, balm of the ordinary, imperial joy and sorrow of human existence, the dreamed as well as the lived— what could be dearer than this, given the closeness of death?