I never thought about writing. I was married young, I was still in college, as we did then, and I had two babies before I was 25, and I loved them, and I loved taking care of them, but I was a little bit cuckoo, staying at home and not having a creative outlet.

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

I think we made out [sexuality changing]. I think that's really great, and we didn't jump into intercourse. And there were no blow jobs.

I think people who write for kids, we have that ability to go back into our own lives.

Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.

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.

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