“We writers can use our own longing - and frequently do - without ever having to understand or analyze it. That is why our stories are often wiser than we are.”

“Where do storytellers find the wisdom to discover their own stories? From no place more mysterious than their own hearts.”

“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.”

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

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

“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)”