They were almond cookies, although they could have been made of spinach and shoes for all I cared. I ate eleven of them, right in a row. It is rude to take the last cookie.

I first told the idea to an editor I had met who, after reading one of my novels for adults that was set in a high school, had an idea that I might write something for children.

I decided that it might be interesting to have terrible things happen to orphans over and over again.

You’re just jealous of me because I’m a tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian!

I do what I do," I said, "in order to do something else.

I was not a particularly brave child, I think, because I had a narrative mind, because my mind automatically went to any terrible thing that could happen.

Announcing your death should be like announcing that you are a lunar moth: It must be done quietly or it will not be believed.