It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.

If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side. because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom.

When you learn to read you will be born again...and you will never be quite so alone again.

To me and my kind life itself is a story and we have to tell it in stories - that is the way it falls.

Drink very good tea out of a thin Wocester cup of colour between apricot and pink.

Wanting is the beginning of getting.

I don't know if I believe in God, but I know I believe in the devil. I have met him.

You can be a nuisance to your family. You mustn't be a nuisance to your friends.

A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy.

Memory is the only friend of grief.

Most grown people are like icebergs, three-tenths showing, seven-tenths submerged - that is why a collision with one of them is unexpectedly hurtful.

The living has a great hope, we have life to bounce back from any difficulty. The dead had no hope.

Stifling your emotions is not the way. Ignoring your emotions is not the way. Your emotions carry important messages for you. Take the time to receive the meaning.

I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a Champion and make a sucker of of him.

If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up, and light-heartedly, courageously, good-temperedly, get ready for the next encounter.

Words as to the inner emotions do not come readily to me, for I have led an isolated life mentally and spiritually.

Okay," Kincaid said. "Anyone have any questions?" "Why do they sell hot dogs in packages of ten but hot dog buns in packages of eight?

People are not fundamentally bad. It only takes the smallest of correctives to take care of that tiny minority that wants to disrupt the community.

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

When I can't immediately define the character, and there's an element of mystery to it and still a lot to be explored, that's when I say yes.

Secretary [John] Kerry has called Civil War [in Syria] an unbelievably small war that we're going to get involved with.