Sitting in cold wet britches for an hour was no fun even in a magic kingdom.

I do know that I need solitude, not only to write but to nourish myself (being, like most writers, an introvert) so that I do keep trying to write.

Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'

It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.

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

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

Lord, let me heed the angels you put in my path.