If a man is keeping an idea to himself, and that idea is taken by stealth or trickery-I say it is stealing. But once a man has revealed his idea to others, it is no longer his alone. It belongs to the world.

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

All my books take a long time to research. I spend several months researching before I start writing, and in the middle of writing I often have to stop and look up stuff. At my local library, I am one of the best customers! The research takes several months.

Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.

I used to sit home with my computer and write. After the Newbery, I probably spend more than half my time on the road.

With a book called 'Keeping Score,' I really did want to write a book about the Korean War, because I felt that it is the least understood war in the American cultural imagination. So I set out with the idea that Americans didn't know much about the Korean War and that I was going to try to fix a tiny bit of that.