When I began to read, I began to exist.

Everything in life is made up...You make up that you are happy. You make up that you are sad. You make up that you are in love. If you don't make up ….

We need to tell young people that America was built by men and women of all colors and that the future of this country is dependent on the participat….

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct..

Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?.

I had seen the ballet of Swan Lake as a child but it was as an adult, when I saw a production featuring Erik Bruhn, that I first noticed how signific….

We all think we're different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us..

You cannot live this life anymore without the ability to read..

We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional..

Cutting people out of your life is easy, keeping them in is hard..

With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about..

Think about all the tomorrows of your life..

It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch t….

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken.

But in the end, we learn we can forgive most people. The cushion of mortality makes their wrongdoing seem less dark, and whatever roads they traveled….

What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke….

Sometimes when things get hard, we tend to set our sights on what's hard, that difficult thing that keeps us upset, and we turn our back on our stren….

What I do with my books is to create windows to my world that all may peer into. I share the images, the feelings and thoughts, and, I hope, the deli….

I think it's difficult for young people to acknowledge being smart, to knowledge being a reader. I see kids who are embarrassed to read books. They'r….

I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head..

I like people who take responsibility for their lives..