Reading a story should be a fabulous, wonderful thing. The most important thing that parents can do for kids is to read with them and to let their kids see them reading books for their own pleasure.

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

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

It is our duty and our joy to communicate our hearts to each other. Words assist us in this task.

There can be a lot of longevity in the repetition of things being told again and again in a variety of ways.

So here I am, sending a two-ounce mouse down into a dungeon with a sewing needle to save a human princess, and I don't know how in the world he's going to do it. I have no idea. That was the first time it occurred to me that writing the story was roughly equivalent to Despereaux's descent into the dungeon. I was tremendously aware of that as I was writing. I thought, "I have to be brave or else I'm not going to be able to tell it." But it's the only way that I can write. If I know what's going to happen, I'm not interested in telling the story.

I actually do like traveling.