My writing comes from ideas that make a sound in my heart.

Since my first novel was rescued from a slush pile, it makes me sad that most publishing houses no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. Nor are many willing to take chances on novels that are not deemed immediately "marketable."

...those of us who write for children are called, not to do something to a child, but be someone for a child.

I know a movie and a book are two different things and you are going do different media in different ways. No author can want a movie to be exactly like the book because then it will be a bad movie.

I can't believe there will ever be a time when the book is truly obsolete. It is the perfect technology and feeds the soul.

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.

. . . Jess believed, that she thought he was the best. It was not the kind of best that counted either at school or at home, but it was a genuine kind of best. He kept the knowledge of it buried inside himself like a pirate treasure. He was rich, very rich, but no one could know about it for now except his fellow outlaw, Julia Edmunds.