The thing I have learned through the years is that one idea 'doth' not a novel make. A novel must be several seemingly unrelated ideas that somehow magically come together to create the fabric of the story.

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.

All of us can think of a book... that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.

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.

I can't believe there will ever be a time when the book is truly obsolete. It is the perfect technology and feeds the soul.

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.

Reading has made such a profound difference to my life. I'm sure I became a writer because of the power of literature in my own life.