Mercy Watson was a character that had been in my head for a long time.

Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?” “Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. She closed her eyes. “I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.

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.

I never want to be a role model.

If there is anything that I think I might use later, I underline it.

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."

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.