My characters live inside my head for a long time before I actually start a book. They become so real to me, I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Some people consider this weird. But my family understands.

The best books come from someplace deep inside.... Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.

The only thing that works with writing is that you care so passionately about it yourself, that you make someone else care passionately about it.

I do believe that people who write for children are deeply connected to their own childhood.

The child from 9 to 12 interests me very much. And so, those were the years that I like to write about, when I'm writing.

She wondered if all the firsts in her life would go by so quickly, and be forgotten just as quickly.

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