Quotes from Kevin Henkes

Home was the same as when Martha had left it, but because *she* had changed, her world seemed slightly different, as though she were seeing everything in sharper focus.

You know," he said, "when you were little and tired like this, I'd throw you over my shoulder and carry you home like a sack of rice. Sometimes I wish you were still that little. I wish I could still do that." "Da-ad. That is so embarrassing," is what she said. But sometimes she wished it, too. Sometimes she wished it with all her heart.

The glittery feeling. She'd named it because it felt to her as if her skin and everything beneath it briefly became shiny and jumpy and bubbly, as if glitter materialized inside her, then rose quickly through the layers of tissue that comprised her, momentarily sparkling all over the surface of her skin before dissipating into the air. Martha

Sometimes I think as adults we think of them as — because they're small in size that they're small in all ways — and they're not. They have big feelings, and they have big eyes, they see things, they hear things, they're living life just the way an adult does and I think sometimes as adults we forget that.

he could manage. Ms. Silver happened to be walking by

Drop Sisters.

I am very brave," Sheila Rae said, patting herself on the back.

People she loved. Happy people. Lots of people.

Can your heart swoop? That's what Billy wondered. In th first minutes on the porch with Papa when everyone was hugging and kissing and talking at once, that's what it felt like - it felt like Billy's heart was swooping inside him.

but when you see something only once a year it's always new, as if you're seeing it for the first time.

She decided that this kind of waiting - waiting for something good and bad tangled together - should be given its own special name.

There was something wonderful - something potent even - about a present before it's unwrapped. Especially an unexpected one. Anything could be inside.

Starting is the most difficult part

I think writers are observers and watchers. We always have our ears open and eyes open, so I might see something in everyday life that inspires me. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Everyday life is where I get my inspiration.

When I'm looking for an idea, I'll do anything--clean the closet, mow the lawn, work in the garden.

If we expose kids to books and art, nothing but good can come from it.

I like small, domestic stories.