Actually, the first thing I do is choose the antique that will be featured in each book. I try to find unusual objects with great stories. I am fascinated by the stories.

I love Christmas! I'm not religious, but I love the trappings of the season. I love the decorations, and the music, and Santa, and the festive food, and the cinnamon- and vanilla-infused aromas.

I encourage people to read by encouraging them to read whatever they want.

The trick is to get people to read anything, to engender the love of reading. Once you can read, you can teach yourself anything. Librarians are key, I think. They hold the power to empower.

While the cast of characters stays the same, I always try to add in new information so readers get to know the people they care about better with each story.

While I hear from readers all the time that they love learning new things, I never want to do an "info-dump." Boring! I try to include enticing details and skip all the rest.

I do not believe in an atonement which is admirably wide, but fatally ineffectual.

Actually, something is always happening. People who don't love the moment are always trying to achieve something, but when one is on the way, every moment is 'it.'

The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter... or at least, most minds are.

Freedom needs all her poets; it is they Who give her aspirations wings, And to the wiser law of music sway Her wild imaginings.

Deciding what gets my time is very simple: I ask, What am I passionate about?

I'm ready to meet a nice man!

In the coming elections if you cannot decide whom to select, use the vote to reject.

Nobody wants to see the village of the happy people.

I once did a - the first piece on Malcolm X that anyone had ever seen in the - white press.

Lives are mere blips on the canvas of eternity.