... [They] took it upon themselves to start the laborious process of cranking up life again, after death has stopped us all in its tracks.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy

I don't pretend reality is the same for everyone.

Once upon a time there was a fairy godmother, but the rest of the time there was none. This story is about one of those other times.

For me to see is to read. It has always been that way.

Of course I loved books more than people.

Boys do not leave their boyhood behind when they leave off their school uniform.

A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.

But silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grown pale, sicken and die. And then they haunt you.

When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic, yearning for the lost pleasure of books. It is not a yearning that one ever expects to be fulfilled.

A story so cherished it has to be dressed in casualness to disguise its significance in case the listener turned out to be unsympathetic.

It is necessary ... to yield to the storm, purchase a peace, and wait patiently for better times.

I paint the stuff I see when my eyes are closed

True miracles are created by men when they use the courage and intelligence that God gave them.

I had this attitude, that Silicon Valley obnoxious attitude, that I know what I'm doing, and the rest was going to be pretty easy.

Let me tell you, you can paint pictures and get people indicted for just about anything.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope.

Wisdom accepts that all things have two sides

He was desperate to tell his news to some other cat; he almost felt that if a mouse crossed his path he would stop to inform it that it was about to be eaten by a ThunderClan deputy.

I've paid for more pianos in hotel lobbies than you can imagine.

And new, too. Remade. Ready to move again. Listening was the start, she decided. Doing was the next step.