Lisa Mandina

“You were talking to that niche in the wall again, Gwyneth. I saw you."

"Yes, but it's my favorite bit of wall, Gordon. I'd hurt its feelings if I didn't stop and talk to it.”
― Kerstin Gier, Ruby Red

“September 11
We thought we'd outdistanced history
Told our children it was nowhere near;
Even when history struck Columbine,
It didn't happen here.

We took down the maps in the classroom,
And when they were safely furled,
We told the young what they wanted to hear,
That they were immune from a menacing world.

But history isn't a folded-up map,
Or an unread textbook tome;
Now we know history's a fireman's child
Waiting at home alone.”
― Richard Peck, Invitations to the World: Teaching and Writing for the Young

“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth

“It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.”
― Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending