For every teenager I know, having a phone is a mixed blessing, because your parents can press a button and figure out where you are.

We are a nation of children letting horrible things happen, and flunking Calc.

I'd written my first novel for adults, which was called Basic Eight and was set in a high school, and we were having a devil of a time selling it. It ended up in the hands of an editor of a children's publishing house, for which it was entirely inappropriate. She said, "Well, we can't publish this, but I think you should write something for children," which I thought was a really terrible idea.

You must be all a-tingle with excitement.' 'I guess so,' I said, but I did not feel a-tingle. I did not feel a-anything.

It seemed to me that every adult did something terrible sooner or later. And every child, I thought, sooner or later becomes an adult.

Every time you enter a library you might say to yourself, "The world is quiet here," as a sort of pledge proclaiming reading to be the greater good.

...there's not enough ink and paper to say all I wanted.