I was shy, but I stood up in front of the class and I gave my report.I was reporting on books that I didn't want to read. I was inventing books that I didn't want to read.

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'm an e-mail junkie though I'm trying to read my in-box only twice a day and to answer all at once.

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

I was sick all the time, one exotic illness after another, which lasted throughout my twenties. My worst decade. But from the day the first book was accepted, I never got sick again. Writing changed my life.

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.

Another thing all writers have in common is we're all observers. We pay attention to detail.