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

I think, oh my god, kids are reading, and they care about a book enough to come over and talk to me about a book that they care about. If I think about it as being a celebrity, it would freak me out. But I just think, lucky me, that I get to be a part of this whole thing.

Everything, as you well know . . . cannot always be sweetness and light.

My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

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

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.