“The power of fiction is that it gives us, as readers, the opportunity to move inside another human being, to look out through that person's eyes, hear with her ears, think with his thoughts, feel with her feelings. It is the only form of art which can accomplish that feat so deeply, so completely. And thus it is the perfect bridge for helping us coming to know the other - the other inside as well as outside ourselves. (x)”

“I have never met a bigot who was a reader as a child. (ix)”

“But never in his saddest dreams had he thought he'd spend his last years dusting this enormous old house for no one at all.”

“A good friend of mine once said, "I have never met a bigot who was a reader as a child.”

“So much longing.So many livesfilledwith longing.It's what stories―all our stories―are made of.And what is longingmade ofexcept hope?”

“It is the nature of stories to leave out far more than they include.”

“RUNT is my FAVORITE book.It starts out small.Then,it gets exciting in the middle.In the end it settled.”