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.

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.

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

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

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

What I like most: Reading well-written sources that take me to another world for hours at a time - and being able to call that work! Also, of course, finding a gem of information that is either exactly what I was looking for, or else fits perfectly into the story in some way.

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.