I've never really thought in terms of taboos. I think that books can really help parents and kids talk together about difficult subjects. I've always felt that way.

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

Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.

I would make up [Theodor] Seuss-like books at night when I was cleaning up from the dinner, you know, putting these little kids to bed, reading them rhyming books. And so that's what I started doing. They were really bad. I have some in a box and it says on the box, it's a note to my kids you know, when I die, if you ever publish these I will come back and haunt you.

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

Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.

I didn't know I was really a writer until I read it in the New York Times. And then I thought, "Oh my god, maybe I can really do this". That was a review of "Margaret."