The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.

A friend of mine said Winn-Dixie is the way that people want the world to be and Tiger Rising is the way that it is.

We were 15 minutes into it and nothing was happening; I thought, well, that's not going to work. Then all of a sudden everything clicked. I don't know how long it took us, but I would just show up at Alison's [McGhee] office. She would type and we'd just kick it back and forth. Writing is so scary for me, such a lonely endeavor, and it became a wonderful thing to show up and have somebody else go through it with me. It was actually a wonderful experience.

I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea.

I am single and childless, but I have lots of friends and I am an aunt to three lovely children.