You have to create characters who will whisk people away from their ordinary lives.

I think libraries are an important part of the community. If it wasn't for librarians recommending our books to people coming into the library unsure of what to read, where would authors be? I really applaud this community for being so serious about giving to their libraries.

People are always afraid of the unknown - and banding together against the Thing That Is Different From Us is a time-honoured tradition for rallying the masses.

Writer's block is for people who have the luxury of time.

I know that books I have written will still resonate in 50 years - particularly 'My Sister's Keeper.' It has sold three million copies in the States alone. I strongly feel that, as a novelist, you have a platform and the ability to change people's minds.

When was the last time someone read aloud to you? Probably when you were a child, and if you think back, you'll remember how safe you felt, tucked under the covers, or curled in someone's arms, as a story was spun around you like a web.

Here are the things I know for sure: When you think you’re right, you are most likely wrong. Things that break—be they bones, hearts, or promises—can be put back together but will never really be whole. And, in spite of what I said, you can miss a person you’ve never known. I learn this over and over again,

I am an activist. I have a really big pulpit with my fiction and I love knowing that I can make people think.

Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.

The people have got to trust in themselves.

Be silent in a group of people See what they reveal to you.

Some people say, "Sometimes I have violent thoughts, what can I do?" So I say, "Well, have them!" Cos we should not try to control ourselves. It's very bad to control ourselves in this sense. If you have any emotion at all, if its a bad emotion or good emotion, think about it, you should just understand that you have those emotions. And it's good because we are people and we have all these emotions. And the result of that is you would become more and more peaceful. If you don't let those emotions be inside of you then you become extremely violent.

The thing is, even after the revolution, if people don't have any trust in themselves, they'll get new problems.

Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980,

I really feel that artists or musicians are controversial people. Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity. If people are not doing that, they're not artists - they're artisans.

When you are suffering, you become more understanding about yourself, but also about other people's sufferings too. That's the first step to understand somebody is to understand their sufferings. So then love follows.

Confusion has become a state of mind, more of less; we're trained to be confused. Quite simply, the people in power are keeping us down, keeping us docile and keeping us consuming with this confusion. It's a cultural confusion and it is deliberate.

I often wish my mother had died so that at least I could get some people's sympathy. But there she was, a perfectly beautiful mother.

People are still thinking of solving problems by violence and war, and that has to stop.

In the '60s, people were still very protective of each field that they belonged to. Avant-garde artists didn't know about rock or pop or jazz. And the jazz people of course didn't want to know about any other music. They were all just kind of protecting their territory.

I think people place limitations on each other and on ourselves. There is a great fear of expressing ourselves, of making creativity happen.

People say that this new generation is so used to the Internet that their heads are already different. They can't read a book from beginning to end. That is not a tragedy. The book changes form.

When people get cynical about love, they should look at us [Yoko and John Lennon] and see it is possible

We don't read people's wishes. The wishes are suppose to be direct communication to the Universe. Your interception will weaken the power of the wish.