Our fundamental task as human beings is to seek out connections-to exercise our imaginations.

When people ask me what qualifies me to be a writer for children, I say I was once a child. But I was not only a child, I was, better still, a weird little kid, and though I would never choose to give my own children this particular preparation for life, there are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.

The children's book world has given me wonderful friendships and an unbelievably rich life.

the reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day.

Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.

What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it create some semblance of order.

I have been mocked by beauty, too. But it was the beauty which cost me nothing that in the end turned upon me.