The way we started was, Alison [McGhee] said, 'Tall girl, short girl.' We had no plans beyond that.

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.

We forget that the simple gesture of putting a book in someone's hands can change a life. I want to remind you that it can. I want to thank you because it did. - 2010 Indies Choice Award

Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. He admired his own defiance. And then, reader, he fainted.

I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.

Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.

All of that loneliness and longing in my heart got transferred into the book Because of Winn-Dixie, I guess.