As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.

A library is a feast to which we are all invited.

I am called to listen to the sound of my own heart -- to write the story within myself that demands to be told at that particular point in my life. And if I do this faithfully, clothing that idea in the flesh of human experience and setting it in a true place, the sound from my heart will resound in the reader's heart.

You don't have to fight dragons to write books. You just have to live deeply the life you've been given.

Many people are angry when they make a mistake, but very few people have the sense to be sorry.

Once a book is published, it no longer belongs to me. My creative task is done. The work now belongs to the creative mind of my readers. I had my turn to make of it what I would, now it is their turn.

We are trying to communicate that which lies in our deepest heart, which has no words, which can only be hinted at through the means of a story. And somehow, miraculously, a story that comes from deep in my heart calls from a reader that which is deepest in his or her heart, and together from our secret hidden selves we create a story that neither of us could have told alone.