Alison [McGhee] and I have known each other since the summer of 2001. One evening we were sitting around talking about how we wished we had a good story to work on. Alison said: Why don't we work on a story together? I said: A story about what? And Alison said: A story about a short girl and a tall girl.

I am just always, always paying attention - waiting for the words, or image, or name that will be the beginning of a story.

Miracles and magic pervade the things that I've written, but yet there are no miracles and there is no magic.

The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.

I remember wanting to write a book with someone, the someone being Kate [DiCamillo], and we decided to write about two friends. We had no idea how to begin this project - neither of us had ever collaborated with another writer - and I'm pretty sure that we began by giving our two friends a sock, just to see what they'd do with it. And it went from there.

The only control you have over a movie is whether or not you decide to sell the rights.

I think of Mercy Watson like a superball; there's a bouncy kind of optimism to her stories. She allows me to play, and she makes me laugh. Hopefully readers feel the same way.