A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.

Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.

In a town in Calabria, a long time ago, there lived an old lady everyone called Strega Nona, which meant "Grandma Witch".

In women he doesn't trust! He is an atheist.

More than ever at that instant did she long for speech - speech that would conceal and protect where dangerous silence might betray.

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.

The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost.

If yee would know a knave, give him a staffe.

However steep or ramshackle they may be, don't ever despise the stairs which take you up to higher levels!

My shirt got torn in a fight. Yours evidently has a fast-release tab.

The people who loved me when I was seven years old love my books, and the people who didn't like me when I was seven years old don't like my books.

I'll give you this strawberry if you keep it a secret. --L (Death Note)

Usually the characters I play are men of few words, who communicate in non-verbal ways.