“It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.”

“The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things.[from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]”

“Each of us guard a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.”

“No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or by emotional appeal.”

“It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven.”

“Each time a girl opens a book and finds a womanless history, she learns she is worth less.”