It's such a thrill when an adult comes up to me and says, 'I read your book as a child and really loved it.' That's a tremendous compliment.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations- something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.

Words are humanity's greatest natural resource, but most of us have trouble figuring out how to put them together. Words aren't cheap. They are very precious. They are like water, which gives life and growth and refreshment, but because it has always been abundant, we treat it cheaply. We waste it; we pollute it, and doctor it. Later we blame the quality of the water because we have misused it.

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

There are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.

I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream?

You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.