We measure the value of a civilized society by the number of Libraries it opens, not the number it closes down.

True education flowers at the point when delight falls in love with responsibility.

You cannot change what you are, only what you do.

That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

One curious thing about growing up is that you don't only move forward in time; you move backwards as well, as pieces of your parents' and grandparents' lives come to you.

We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.

I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.

If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.

Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.

Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.

Peace begins with nonjudgmental love.

I'm hardly famous. I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone else.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

In the hour of strait and need, we measure men's stature not by the body, but the soul!

It was not that she was out of temper, but that the world was not equal to the demands of her fine organism.

John McCain responded to critics who say he's too old for a sixth term by saying that his mother is 103 years old and doing well. The crazy thing is that even she is somehow younger than John McCain.

I heard that you did not have a judge to interview this month in the Bulletin, so I thought I'd help out. Besides, with the Stock Market tanking recently, it reminded me of the good old days.

I find writing extremely difficult. I usually have to drag myself to my desk, mainly because I doubt myself. And it's getting harder because I want to improve with every book.

Learning is about failure and recovery from failure.

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.