If I am just home and writing, I become very strange.

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.

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.

I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.

Minnesota has been so good to me and so pleased that I love Minnesota.

Most of my books begin with an image or a voice - one small thing - and I don't know what it is going to become.

I think I'm succinct to the point of trying to write the two-word novel. Editing my work almost never means taking anything out but rather adding, because I'm always stripping down. I tend to under-write rather than over-write.