It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.

-a whole world can lie before someone, if love is there when one wakes.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.

The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.

The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.

The writer after all is only half the book, the other half is the reader.

Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.

We live in times that are in many ways ambiguous. Maybe that's why kids want precision in what they read - they don't like that moral ambiguity.

Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none

He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.

It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.

Keep practicing, " he told her."Until I get it right?" she said. But he corrected her."No. Until you don't get it wrong.

... the keynote of government is injustice.

Secrets with girls, like guns with boys, are never valued till they make a noise.

I came from a big family. As a matter of fact, I never got to sleep alone until I was married.

I have nothing to give but my heart so full and these empty hands." "They're not empty now.

He lives century after century, and the test I set for him he has passed.

I feel like I'm in the right profession.

You don't want to spend your life explaining yourself.

Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers.

The Staten Island Ferry remains a potential terrorist target.