It is the last thing we learn, / listening to the creature world.

Time may heal all wounds, but it does not erase the scars.

Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.

A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.

Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.

Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow.

It's never perfect when I write it down the first time, or the second time, or the fifth time. But it always gets better as I go over it and over it.

Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.

Ideas are the cheapest part of the writing. They are free. The hard part is what you do with ideas you've gathered.

Language helps develp life as surely as it reflects life. It is a most important part of our human condition.

Stories," he'd said, his voice low and almost husky, "we are made up of stories. And even the one's that seem the most like lies can be our deepest hidden truths.

Maybe the real miracle in any miracle is our ability to believe that despite our own depravity, in the eyes of God we are worthy of a miracle.

Create the job, we wish to have.

What is the empathy deficit? The inability of people to stand in other folks shoes. It's hard to empathize with people who have different values than you

We're only truly secure when we can look out our kitchen window and see our food growing and our friends working nearby.

The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by failures.

In every adult human there still lives a helpless child who is afraid of aloneness.... This would be so even if there were a possibility for perfect babies and perfect mothers.

We emphasize our differences by nationality, race and financially. [...] It's our common humanity that defines us.

Breathe and you dwell in the here and now, breath and you see impermanence is life.

I lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.

I was more than just a moody artist.