I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

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.

My first publication was a haiku in a children's magazine when I was 9 years old. I received one dollar for it! I gave the check to my dad for Christmas, and he framed it and hung it over his desk.

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

Each of my books has taken me a different length of time to write - eight months for Seesaw Girl, eight months for Shard, three years for When My Name Was Keoko! The publisher takes another year and a half to work on the book, so altogether each book can take up to three or four years to publish.

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.