If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

He was dressed as if everything he wore had come from different stores or from a rummage sale, except that the crease in his trousers was sharp and his shoes were shined.

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 read my books aloud before they were published.

I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house; they want places to play.

What interests me is what children go through while growing up.

The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.