you can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain

Kids should read whatever they want to read. So I'm hoping that just like 15-year-olds read "Summer Sisters," I'm hoping that they'll read this.

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

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.

With "Margaret," I remember clearly it was, you know because I did remember it clearly. I was young. I was young in terms of experience and what did I know about and I had an incredible memory from my own childhood. And so it never occurred to me to write for any other age group. And I thought I'm going to write a book and I'm going to tell the truth.

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