There's a Buddhist precept that the only thing you deserve is the chance to do the work, and I've been given the chance to do the work.

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

The people need a hero. But all they've got is . . . me.

God loveth the clean.

When you walk this earth on borrowed time, each day on the calendar is a beloved friend you know for only a short time.

There's an ecstatic side to writing. It's like jazz. It just has a life.

I think you grow up wanting to be a racing driver. Then it dawns on you that it's not going to happen.

Man is still a savage to the extent that he has little respect for anything that cannot hurt him.

It's great people still care about books, and it's great you can still fashion a life from literature.

Every song I put on a record could be a single and I just pack my bags for it... and the minute it takes off, I'm not gonna be home for a while.

If we had the power over the ends of the earth, it would not give us that fulfillment of existence which a quiet devoted relationship to nearby life can give us.

I heave the basketball; I know it sails in a parabola, exhibiting perfect symmetry, which is interrupted by the basket. It's funny, but it is always interrupted by the basket.