I am certainly a fearful person, but fearless in my writing. So there's that other person inside.

Some characters become your friends for life. That's how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.

I'm a more skilled writer now, but after 23 books it's harder to be fresh and that's really important to me. I don't want to write the same thing over and over again.

Its all about your determination, I think, as much as anything. There are a lot of people with talent, but its that determination.

[Writing] totally changed my life. It gave me my life. Everything opened up.

If all you leave in the library is books that you think speak to everyone, what are you going to have? You'd have nothing.

[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.