The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.

What I really want to do is to write a hilarious farce.

I woke up one morning and realized that what I wanted to say to everyone - children, young people, adults - was: Read for your life.

Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'

It seems to me that there are two great enemies of peace - fear and selfishness.

The last dregs of winter spoiling the taste of everything.

We're alike, Jess would tell himself, me and Miss Edmunds . . . We don't belong at Lark Creek, Julia and me.