“It’s humbling, though, to think of all the stories that used to be, when they were at their best - before they were stories, when they were something previous, something infinitely more wonderful, brimming with potential, potent and inspired, and how they are diminished in the telling. That thing we imagine is out there cannot be captured on paper. The story is always something less than it was supposed to be, something less than when first glimpsed by the imagination.”

“What do you mean less than nothing? I don't think there is any such thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It's the lowest you can go. It's the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something - even though it's just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.”

“This isn’t a thrift store… We’re not selling them something less expensive, we’re selling them something more special. We have to tell them the story of what we’re showing them. And then we have to show them how they can be the new heroine in the story.”

“Somethings were meant to be and somethings were just meant to be good stories”

“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”

“... If we don't tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won't believe it.”