“Besdies, to turn me ladylike might have rendered me useless and possibly ornamental.”

“That meant I could come back whenever I could manage it. And she was telling me to go. She knew the decision was too big a load for me to carry by myself. She knew me through and through. She had eyes in the back of her heart.”

“...they'd just tell you to turn the other cheek, wouldn't they?...Trouble is, Mrs. Dowdel observed, after you've turned the other cheek four times, you run out of cheeks.”

“We write by the light of every story we have ever read. ”

“Grandma, how old is she?""Oh I don't know." Grandma said. "You'd have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.”

“Read to your childrenTwenty minutes a day;You have the time,And so do they.Read while the laundry is in the machine;Read while the dinner cooks;Tuck a child in the crook of your armAnd reach for the library books.Hide the remote,Let the computer games cool,For one day your children will be off to school;Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice;Let them hear their first talesIn the sound of your voice.Read in the morning;Read over noon;Read by the light ofGoodnight Moon.Turn the pages together,Sitting close as you'll fit,Till a small voice beside you says,"Hey, don't quit.”

“Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer.”