My mother was a cracker jack typist. And she would come in and sit at my house and type the final type script before I would then send it to the publisher. And it was nice for us.

I always had stories inside my head and one day I just decided to start writing them down. I didn't actually decide.

The creative process; I enjoy thinking up the stories and situations for my books.

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

I still get angry when older people assume that everyone in my generation, screws around. They're probably the same ones who think all kids use dope. It's true that we are more open than our parents but that just means we accept sex and talk about it. It doesn't mean we are all jumping into bed together.

When you ask, did writing change my life? It totally changed my life. It gave me my life.

In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices-and all because of fear.