Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.

My first publication was a haiku in a children's magazine when I was 9 years old. I received one dollar for it! I gave the check to my dad for Christmas, and he framed it and hung it over his desk.

Reading for writers is like training for athletes.

I can give advice to anyone interested in writing in one word: Read! I think it's much more important to be a reader than to be a writer!

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

I used to sit home with my computer and write. After the Newbery, I probably spend more than half my time on the road.

God bless Interlibrary Loan. I pay a lot of library fines. In the case of 'A Single Shard,' I was using books that hadn't been checked out in 30 years, so I didn't feel too bad.

I always knew the woman i wanted to be- I knew I wanted to be a woman who was independant

Puns are just another form of sarcasm, which may or may not make you - smile, giggle, or laugh.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.

Although I'm a Scot, I'd be proud to be called a Scouser.

To work our way towards a shared language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.

Like any child raised on tales of magical worlds beyond paintings and mirrors and wardrobes, I had yearned to enter Middle Earth, to reach through.

April's rare capricious loveliness.

Personally I've never put much store by honesty- I mean how can you trust a word whose first letter you don't even pronounce

What a man wants with religion in these breadless times, surpasses my comprehension.

I want people to get out of that nasty habit of needing a label. Every genre for each song is different.