“I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were.”

Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets.

But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?

I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled.

Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it’s much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world!

Adventures are all very well in their place, but there’s a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.

I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn’t mean anything? What then?

I think hell is something you carry around with you. Not somewhere you go.

Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

Not only are there no happy endings,’ she told him, ‘there aren’t even any endings.

Rule number one: Don’t fuck with librarians.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

An Angel who did not so much fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.

This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.

Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, Leave no path untaken.

Books were safer than other people anyway.

I don’t live through my kids. But I do know what will happen in life, and I just want them well prepared.

Fatherhood is the best thing I ever did. It changes your perspective. You can write a book, you can make a movie, you can paint a painting, but having kids is really the most extraordinary thing I have taken on.

As President, my father will change the labor laws that were put into place at a time when women were not a significant portion of the workforce. And he will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all.

If I have a weakness, it’s that I try to live by the rules. I try to live by the rules, no matter what they are, and I was brought up that way as a kid. Play by the rules.

I’m proud to say I’m a role model for kids.

If all babies are so cute, how the hell do we have so many ugly people in the world?

Spare the rod and spoil the child – that is true. But, beside the rod, keep an apple to give him when he has done well.

When you are so full of sorrow that you can’t walk, can’t cry anymore, think about the green foliage that sparkles after the rain. When the daylight exhausts you, when you hope a final night will cover the world, think about the awakening of a young child.