I like going to schools and telling classes that when I was a child, I failed every "will this kid become a writer" test.

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

Longing is not always a reciprocal thing.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

I was visiting my mother in Florida when the September 11, 2001 attacks happened. I was working on The Tale of Despereaux at that point. I had already gone into writing it with a great deal of trepidation and fear, and then this God-awful thing happens and it was really hard to even get back home to Minneapolis.

There is a lot of love in him, a lot of love in his heart...And he is up there with no one and nothing to love. It is a bad thing to have love and no where to put it.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.