...the long train ride was like traveling through limbo. You weren't anywhere when you were on a train, she decided. You weren't where you had been, and you weren't yet where you were going. You were nowhere. It might be beautiful outside the window-and it was, she had sense enough to realize that-but it wasn't anywhere to her, just a scene passing by that was framed by the train window. (p160)

I'm sure my first nine years have had a powerful influence on the kind of books I write.

You gotta know someone cares about you, or you just give up.

Shh" he said. "Look." "Where?" "Can't you see'um?" he whispered. "All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you." "Me?" "Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arrving today might be the queen they've been waiting for.

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

I was behaving, just like I promised, but fate intervened.

I realize, of course, that I wasn't born knowing how to read. I just can't imagine a time when I didn't know how.