Anybody who puts a book into someone else's hands inspires me - teachers, librarians, booksellers, parents.

Mercy Watson was a character that had been in my head for a long time.

Every morning for, I don't know how long, I came over to Alison's [McGhee] house and we sat in her office and wrote the stories "out loud" together. We yelled at each other and made each other laugh. It was a lot of fun.

There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.

There are so many difficult things and stories can make them palatable. That's the way I have always felt.

... every time you look at the world and the people in it closely, lovingly, imaginatively, it changes you. The world, under the microscope of your attention, opens up like a beautiful, strange flower and gives itself back to you in ways you could never imagine.

Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.