“Just when we think we have our own stories figured out, heroes arise in the most unexpected places.”

“While almost everything that surrounds us in life gets old and wears out, stories, like our very souls, don't age.”

“Child, unless you are opening a dictionary, you start at the book's opening page and you read the story through. If it's terribly dreadful, then just put it down and move on. What I will not tolerate is reading ahead. It's not fair to the reader or to the author. If they meant to have their books read backwards, they would surely have written them that way!”

“People only go to the places they have visited first in their minds.”

“But as a wise and great teacher once explained so patiently, all good stories - stories that touch your soul, stories that change your nature, stories that cause you to become a better person from their telling-these stories always contain truth.”

“Good stories teach!”

“I don't know if it becomes literature...I just know the two added words cause me to look at the ordinary sentences differently. And quite honestly, I find that to be magical!”