The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I'll probably... drop writing children's books and become a political cartoonist again.

No matter how much a man may study, reflect and meditate on all the books in the world, he is nothing more than a minor scribe unless he has read the great book.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

I really like books that you can kind of hear as much as think about, that are so graphic and visual.

“We need books because we are all, in the private kingdoms of our hearts, desperate for the company of a wise, true friend.”

Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.

I don't plot my books rigidly, follow a preconceived structure. A novel mustn't be a closed system - it's a quest.

I'm screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I'm funnier than a lot of people, I think, and that's appreciated by young people.

His books are exciting and powerful and — if I may filch the word from the booksy ones — pulsing