When [books ban] happened, I felt completely alone and that was scary and sad.

I am not scared of you, I am scare of these feelings.

It didn't happen in the 70s. So I had a whole decade when I was writing these books and maybe there was a little bit here or there but there was no big effort to ban books.

[Writing] totally changed my life. It gave me my life. Everything opened up.

Heavy petting, that was fun! That was good. And frankly, you know I wish kids would go back to it. It's very satisfying. And it's not as scary. So many girls, you know this. I mean they are having what we call sex. Right? They're having intercourse. They don't want to, they don't get anything out of it.

I'm a rewriter. That's the part I like best . . . once I have a pile of paper to work with, it's like having the pieces of a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture.

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