“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

“Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all.”

“There's a hunger for stories in all of us, adults too. We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them.”

“We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.”

“Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”

“All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions.”

“He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn't live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.... We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build... The Republic of Heaven.”