Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.

I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.

One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.

With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.

Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.

She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.

I didn't start out writing to give children hope, but I'm glad some of them found it.

Nothing in the whole world felt as good as being able to make something from a sudden idea.

I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.

Gentleness is a great strength.

There is no witness so dreadful, no accuser so terrible as the conscience that dwells in the heart of every man.

Enlightenment is already there inside us and all things. All we have to do is get something out of the way that is causing us not to see that.

In order to solve this differential equation you look at it until a solution occurs to you.

The eyes of a man in the jaundice make yellow observations on everything; and the soul tinctured with any passion diffuses a false color over the appearance of things.

I dont know whether its a fear of standing up, but I really love sitting at the table and blabbing. I learn so much that way, and I think I get free that way, free from inhibition and fears.

Christianity is the complete negation of common sense and sound reason.

And so with that spirit of confidence in our step and with that prayer in our heart, let us now quicken our pace to the victory that awaits us!

It's as though a certain level of intoxication with the mushroom is the precondition for being able to communicate, but is not itself enough.

One of our key strategies has been to restructure traditional high schools into small learning communities with personalized attention and a range of options.