It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. I think the best way for children to treasure reading is for them to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.

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

Miracles and magic pervade the things that I've written, but yet there are no miracles and there is no magic.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

On the return flight from my mother in Florida , I sat next to a businessman who asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I write," and it seemed totally ridiculous in the face of what had just happened. I mean, I couldn't think of anything more pointless than telling stories. He asked, "What do you write?" I said, "I write children books."

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.

There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?