I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me,... - Maya Angelou

"Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it."

"I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness."

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."

"What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come."