I didn't know at the time I was writing Because of Winn-Dixie where the story came from, but in retrospect I can see that it was a response to a terribly harsh winter here in Minnesota.

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

Life is hard. Life is beautiful. Life is difficult. Life is wonderful.

It's a book [Bink & Gollie] about shortness and tallness, so I think it's appropriate to discuss the virtues of shortness.

Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.

A typical day for me is I get up at 6:00, the coffeemaker goes on automatically and the computer gets turned on. I pour a cup of coffee, listen to Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, and then I write.

If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.