To pretend I was sliding down the stair rail." He laughed again. " You should have done it. I would have caught you at the bottom.

I'm more interested in plot than theme, but I hope my values find their way into my stories: kindness, sympathy, effort, and humor!

Luck was with me. I saw no spiders. Luck was against me. I saw no specters.

Crying is part of the adventure.

I rode all day. I cried all night. The moon didn’t glow. The sun didn’t rise. A comet blazed Between my eyes. West and South, Wind and rain. Every way is Just the same. Pray give me a box To hide inside. Pray give me a spade To dig my own grave.

He loved me. He'd loved me as long as he he'd known me! I hadn't loved him as long perhaps, but now I loved him equally well, or better. I loved his laugh, his handwriting, his steady gaze, his honorableness, his freckles, his appreciation of my jokes, his hands, his determination that I should know the worst of him. And, most of all, shameful though it might be, I loved his love for me.

My favorite of my books is DAVE AT NIGHT, because it's loosely based on my father's childhood in an orphanage.