The Tale of Despereaux came at the request of Luke, my friend's then-eight-year-old son, who asked, "Write for me the story of an unlikely hero with exceptionally large ears."

I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

In luggage claim at the Minneapolis airport, the guy came up to me and said, "Maybe you're wrong, maybe stories do matter." I wrote that on a scrap of paper and put it above my desk. That was the thing that pushed me through to the end of telling Despereaux, that comment, "Maybe they do...maybe stories matter."

I read whatever the publisher sends me.

If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.

Nobody ever learns anything.