“O Reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in everything.”

“[To beginning readers (ages 4 to 8) at a reading of "Noelle's Treasure Tale"]: If you discover a word in my book that you don't understand, ask your parents so they can look it up in the dictionary for you.”

“An artist reveals his naked soul in his work - and so, gentle reader, do you when you respond to it.”

“Do you think astrologists, palm readers and the like can really tell everything about you? That your personality can be read from your birth date, your hand or from sensing vibrations? Very possible.”

“Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader…”

“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”

“Be unhoused, O my soul!
Only the Infinite be your goal.

Leave those myriad forms behind,
Leave the million names that bind.
A flash will pierce your heart and mind,
And unhouse you, O my soul!”

“If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!”

“The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way.”

“Good books make you ask questions. Bad readers want everything answered.”