I'm predisposed to think that as a people, we're hardwired to understand things through the telling of stories. I think that as human beings it's part of who we are.

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

It is only in solitude that I ever find my own core.

It's time to calculate your risks make amends to reduce errors and increase your successes

I said nothing for a time, just ran my fingertips along the edge of the human-shaped emptiness that had been left inside me.

We have disagreements as to what race does and ought to mean, but we have a remarkable consensus on what it is, without any ability to define it technically.

The world doesn’t owe you anything. You have to work for everything you get and you have to appreciate every bit of success the world gives you.

Taiwan gives a lot of foreign aid to Costa Rica, so it looks like they are basically buying the right to fish, even though it's not legal.

True men and women are all physicians to make us well.

The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted.

After my marriage ended, I had an urge to skip that part of my life completely in terms of poetry, not publish anything at all about it.

I am the beast at the end of the rope.