If a person had accused him of meanness, he could have defended himself. But with a dog - you did something cheap to it when you were sure no one was….

Words are nets through which all truth escapes..

It was hard to reassure grown-ups when you weren't certain yourself what you were feeling and thinking—when thoughts dissolved before you could name ….

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life..

My father brought me a box of books once when I was about three and a half or four. I remember the carton they were in and the covers with illustrati….

You'll see some bad things, but if you didn't see them, they'd still be happening..

People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along..

Labels not only free us from the obligation to think creatively; they numb our sensibilities, our power to feel. During the Vietnam War, the phrase b….

In my early twenties, that's when I really began to write. Before that, I was too busy working, keeping myself going..

When there's a terrible murder people who are interviewed say, 'This has always been a quiet neighborhood.' That is so dumb and uninformed! The earth….

Life was an impenetrable mystery cloaked in babble..

Imagination has to do with one's awareness of the reality of other people as well as of one's own reality. Imagination is a bridge between the provin….

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intellige….

Teachers inspire the smallest hearts to grow big enough to change the world..

When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are a….

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one..

Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow..

Life is all getting used to what you're not used to..

To be human is to be in a story..

The minute you become conscious that you are doing good, that's the minute you have to stop because from then on it's wrong..

I don't like to listen to music while I'm working..