“September 11We thought we'd outdistanced historyTold our children it was nowhere near;Even when history struck Columbine,It didn't happen here.We took down the maps in the classroom,And when they were safely furled,We told the young what they wanted to hear,That they were immune from a menacing world.But history isn't a folded-up map,Or an unread textbook tome;Now we know history's a fireman's childWaiting at home alone.”

“The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, Slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized.”

“It was if we all sensed we'd be gone someday soon in a sudden instant--often it happened in the middle of the night--and didn't want to get involved. Or else it was that none of us wanted to know anybody later on who was the way we were now.”

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

“Americans, from the beginning and throughout much of their history, were a warrior people when dealing with those who stood in their path.”

“I read because one life isn't enough. ”

“[A young adult novel] ends not with happily ever after, but at a new beginning, with the sense of a lot of life yet to be lived.”