I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.

A friend of mine said Winn-Dixie is the way that people want the world to be and Tiger Rising is the way that it is.

Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.

Normally, Edward would have found intrusive, clingy behavior of this sort very annoying, but there was something about Sarah Ruth. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do more for her. (page 135)

I'm in trouble if they can't, because everyone's taller than me, and if that's true, that means I can't have any friends! Alison [McGhee] and I look very much like, I was going to say Bink and Gollie, but I meant Mutt and Jeff. We look ridiculous when we walk down the street together, because she's so tall and I'm so short. But yes, tall people and short people can, and should be, friends. I, personally, like being short. I think it makes things easier.

I would hesitate to say the characters [ in Bink & Gollie] are too related to either to us [me and Alison McGhee], but they certainly draw on our physical traits and personality traits and then exaggerate them to the nth degree.

I love words; I love the way they sound. Once I've worked on everything else, the last drafts of my books come down to how they sound.