You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.

The themes in my books, like in life, are about grace and redemption and you never know when they're going to show up and what form they're going to be in. Stories emerge from keeping your heart open to the people that cross in front of you or the dogs or the mice, and their ability to open you up and enrich your life.

Go home and read to your adult. We forget how much we love to be read to.

And hope is like love...a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.

[He] had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.

Sometimes strange and wonderful things will pop into my head. And sometimes I will see something in the world that is the beginning of a story. I always have a notebook with me so that I can write down what I see and hear.

As far as books getting turned into movies, I fared very, very well.