I may have ruined my life, but at least I got to eat some really good Chinese food.

I jog in the morning and then write for about two hours. There are times when I'm really excited and can't wait to get back to it. But there are days when I don't know what's coming next, and I really have to force it.

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Nothing in life is easy. But that's no reason to give up. You'll be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it.After all, you only have one life, so you should try to make the most of it.

I think of a book and a play, or a book and a movie, as two separate things - I don't think of it as my novel having a new life.

School just speeds things up... Without school it might take 70 years before you wake up and are able to count.

I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.