This is what art is all about. It is weaving fabric from the feathers you have plucked from your own breast. But no one must ever see the process - only the finished bolt of goods. They must never suspect that that crimson thread running through the pattern is blood.

As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.

Hope ... is not a feeling; it is something you do.

Everything comes in useful once in a hundred years.

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

You think it's so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain't.

My writing comes from ideas that make a sound in my heart.