A Favorite Quote

I struggle against the idea that characters in novels should be role models. Role models may inspire some children--but they didn't inspire any child that I ever was. They only discouraged me. Whereas that awful, bad-tempered, selfish Mary Lennox--who could admire her? Who could love such an unlovable creature? Yet she was given the key to a secret garden. Not because she deserved it, but because she needed it.

~ Katherine Paterson, "The Child in the Attic"