[With "Summer Sisters" the publisher] sent me on a big book tour. And it was the most wonderful professional experience of my life. I mean it was like Kleenex on every table wherever I was, friends patting friends on the back and they'd cry and I'd cry.

What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.

[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

I can't let safety and security become the focus of my life.

When I started to write, it was the '70s, and throughout that decade, we didn't have any problems with book challenges or censorship.

Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it.

We are friends for life. When we’re together the years fall away. Isn’t that what matters? To have someone who can remember with you? To have someone who remembers how far you’ve come?