Quotes from Lois Lowry

In 1952, when I was 15 and living on Governors Island, which was then First Army Headquarters, I encountered the newly-published 'The Catcher in the Rye.' Of course, that book became the iconic anti-establishment novel for my generation.

I have been fortunate. I have done so many things and enjoyed so many things and had such a great life, not to imply that it is ending, but that there aren't many things that I feel I have left undone.

People are starting to refer to 'The Giver' as a classic, but I don't know how that is defined. But if it means that 10, 20, 50 years from now kids will still be reading it, that is kind of awe-inspiring.

I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person.

I majored in English in college, so I read the classic dystopian novels like '1984' and 'Brave New World.'

As female hormones decrease, they're replaced with an overwhelming urge to grow delphinium.

I was a sidelines child: never class president, never team captain, never the one with the most valentines in my box.

Writing is hard work, and fun, and requires you to keep your backside in a chair when you would sometimes like to put it elsewhere. So the only wisdom is the advice to keep at it, I guess.

Oddly, the military world is one of great sameness. There is an orderly quality to life on an army base, and even the children of the military are brought up with that sense of order and sameness.

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.

I was fortunate to live for 3 years in another country, and although we lived in an American compound, still as a young adolescent I did venture into the world of the Japanese with great interest and enjoyment. But many Americans never left that safe and familiar life among their own people.

I'm a writer; I like to retain subtlety and nuance.

This may sound strange, but at a very early age, at around 3, I was aware that I was smarter than the other kids.

The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.

Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none

It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.

We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.

If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.

For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.

I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.

It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?

The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. [from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]

Memory is the happiness of being alone.

Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.