When I'm writing a book, you can't think about your audience. You're going to be in big trouble if you think about it. You're got to write from deep inside.

Kids should read whatever they want to read. So I'm hoping that just like 15-year-olds read "Summer Sisters," I'm hoping that they'll read this.

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.

What's the point of thinking about how it's going to end when it's just the beginning?

The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.

Librarians save lives by handing the right book at the right time to a kid in need.

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