Did I ever tell you my pet peeve?' No,' I said. People who dress up their pets to look like Little Lord Fauntleroys or cowboys, clowns, ballerinas. As if it's not enough just to be a dog or cat or turtle.

Why fit in when you're born to stand out?

Nobody knows who said it first, but somebody must have: 'Kid's gotta be a maniac.

He was the Grand Marshall of our Everyday Parade

I became a children's author by accident.

I think of the flower in the bud: huddled, compressed, dark. Yet somehow it feels the night, knows moon from sun. It waits...waits.

You are truly focused when you're so focused that you don't know you're focused.