I actually do like traveling.

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."

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

She was working to remind herself of who she was. She was working to remember that somewhere in another place entirely she was known and loved.

There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.

I'm continually astonished with myself how different people bring out things in me that I never knew I had inside me. Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you.

Love!' said the princess. She stamped her foot. 'Why must everyone always speak of love?