Lois Lowry Pain Quotations

Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none

The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.

You will be faced, now, with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage.

The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. [from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.