I like to think of myself as a storyteller.

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

There's a Buddhist precept that the only thing you deserve is the chance to do the work, and I've been given the chance to do the work.

Alison [McGhee] and I have known each other since the summer of 2001. One evening we were sitting around talking about how we wished we had a good story to work on. Alison said: Why don't we work on a story together? I said: A story about what? And Alison said: A story about a short girl and a tall girl.

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

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

I journal for about half an hour, and by the time that's done, the business day on the East Coast has begun. The phone starts to ring, and the rest of the day is spent dealing with the business of writing. My workday is done at about 3:00.