"Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him."

"To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain."

"I don't travel and tell stories, because that's not the way these days. But I write my books to be read aloud, and I think of myself in that oral tradition."

"No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations."

"I was always keen to get involved in the school drama productions and was a member of the school choir. I was lucky to have attended schools that took music and drama very seriously and the teachers were just brilliant."

"Under these conditions it is not astonishing that learning was highly prized in fact, my parents made sacrifices to be able to give their children a good education."

"A good teacher is a determined person."

"I was never an A student, but I was really well behaved until I was 13 or so."