I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.

My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.

I have lovely memories of Los Angeles in the 1930s. I came down to live with my mother's cousin and they invited me to come and go to junior college for a year.

I enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.

I read my books aloud before they were published.

All her life she had wanted to squeeze the toothpaste really squeeze it,not just one little squirt. [...] The paste coiled and swirled and mounded in the washbasin. Ramona decorated the mound with toothpaste roses as if it was a toothpaste birthday cake

I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.