“One thing I have discovered since I've been ill, though, is that nobody ever knows anybody, and maybe least of all the people who are closest to them. Sort of a business of not being able to see the trees for the woods. We all live in isolated prisons of our own bodies and there's no real contact with any other human being. That's what sex is, in a way, isn't it, a desperate striving for contact? With which cheerful Thought for Today, I will bid you good afternoon.”

American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She is best known for her 1962 children's book A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal. Her work spans several forms, but she is most closely associated with writing for younger readers. She later received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1998, an honor recognizing her lasting contribution to young adult literature.