But then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don’t want that. And that’s the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me – and you-to lift that burden from themselves.
So actually, there could be parents-of-the-parents-of-the-parents-of-the parents?
I see all of them. All the colors.
The mind can’t explain it, and you can’t make it go away. It’s called love.
Things seem more when you’re little. They seem bigger, and distances seem farther.
Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.
I turn to books for a feeling of companionship: for somebody knowing what I have known.
There will always be a place for bunnies to talk in rhyme, but that’s not what I do.
We live in times that are in many ways ambiguous. Maybe that’s why kids want precision in what they read – they don’t like that moral ambiguity.
I tend not to think about audience when I’m writing. Many people who read ‘The Giver’ now have their own kids who are reading it. Even from the beginning, the book attracted an audience beyond a child audience.
Think only on the climb. Think on what you control.
I don’t set out to transmit a message. I don’t write with a political point of view. There are no religious overtones. Looking back at my books, I can say, ‘Oh, yes, it is there.’ But it’s not in my mind when I write.
It’s a funny thing about names, how they become a part of someone.
It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together.
I don’t read young adult or children’s books, now that my grandchildren are beyond the age of my reading to them. I read reviews, and so I’m aware of what’s out there. But I tend not to read the books.
I don’t for one second think about the possibility of censorship when I am writing a new book. I know I am a person who cares about kids and who cares about truth and I am guided by my own instincts, and trust them.
I believe without a single shadow of a doubt that it is necessary for young people to learn to make choices. Learning to make right choices is the only way they will survive in an increasingly frightening world.
People in the know say The Giver was the first young adult dystopian novel.
People do things that turn out badly, often for the most benevolent of reasons.
Every ‘no’ means you are that much closer to a ’yes.