If you're a kid who is always on the outside hoping to be on the inside, you're watching a lot. You're trying to figure out how to become a normal person in a society that considers you weird.

Sometimes you need to give people something that's for them, not just something that makes you feel good giving it.

You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.

Some folks are natural born kickers. They can always find a way to turn disaster into butter.

The difference between writing a story and simply relating past events is that a story, in order to be acceptable, must have shape and meaning. It is the old idea that art is the bringing of order out of chaos.

As I look back on what I have written, I can see that the very persons who have taken away my time are those who have given me something to say.

We book people are always preaching about reading aloud to children, but unless you do, you can't realize how it enriches family life.