“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.”  –  James Baldwin 1924-1987, American, writer, novelist, poet, playwright, critic, social activist

“Books are uniquely suited to helping us change our relationship to the rhythms and habits of daily life in this world of endless connectivity. We can’t interrupt books; we can only interrupt ourselves while reading them. They are the expression of an individual or a group of individuals, not of a hive mind or collective consciousness. They speak to us, thoughtfully, one at a time.

They demand our attention. And they demand that we briefly put aside our own beliefs and prejudices and listen to someone else’s. You can rant against a book, scribble in the margin or even chuck it out the window. Still, you won’t change the words on the page.”

Source: WSJ The Need to Read

Will Schwalbe, journalist

“We have plenty of Confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our Confidence in.”

“Rightly done, this will make children long for that better world, and their longing will make them willing to think about what must be initiated in order to produce the world they long for.”

On writing children’s literature,
International award winning Austrian author Christine Nöstlinger

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’

From Mending Walls, by Robert Frost, poet

“Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.”

“Don’t confuse meaning with truth.”

Thucydides, Greek, historian