In my stories for children, I sometimes show a hard, harsh, dangerous world. I'm going to show you the way it is, but I'm going to also tell you that there's every reason to hope.

What I hope is that the book [Bink & Gollie] delights children. What I hope is that they laugh and laugh and laugh, just as we did when we wrote them.

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.

Everything, as you well know . . . cannot always be sweetness and light.

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

I have not Googled myself. I have not looked at myself on Amazon. It could drive you wild.

You are down there alone, the stars seemed to say to him. And we are up here, in our constellations, together.