When I was 7, my proudest possession would have been my bookshelf 'cause I had alphabetized all of the books on my bookshelf.

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.

I am a Cherokee and it's the proudest little possession I ever hope to have.

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.

. . . I lay on the bed and lost myself in the stories.
I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.

Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.