Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.

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.

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

Once a book is published, it no longer belongs to me. My creative task is done. The work now belongs to the creative mind of my readers. I had my turn to make of it what I would, now it is their turn.

Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.

You don't have to fight dragons to write books. You just have to live deeply the life you've been given.

...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)