Magic is always impossible.... It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it's magic.

I have done quite a few signings at bookstores, libraries and conferences. I have received phone calls and letters from people who liked the book.

I read my books out loud to myself because of the demands of the story and demands of language.

In luggage claim at the Minneapolis airport, the guy came up to me and said, "Maybe you're wrong, maybe stories do matter." I wrote that on a scrap of paper and put it above my desk. That was the thing that pushed me through to the end of telling Despereaux, that comment, "Maybe they do...maybe stories matter."

We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?

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

Mercy Watson is pure fun for me as a writer, because I think of her as kind of sorbet - a palate cleanser - between larger works. It's always a relief to come back to her.