I started thinking about [ what book is going to go next] when I was working on As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth.

I [drinking coffee] for about an hour, I get dressed and go down in my studio, and that's a different kind of working.

I don't feel like it's something I invented myself, rather something I absorbed and continue to do.

I creep over to my chair and sit there with my notebook and my thermos of coffee. It's my best time for thinking, because I haven't started thinking about anything else yet, and the thoughts can kind of go in and out of my head.

We had a dog, Lucky, who was fourteen years old. For the last year of his life, I would take him on these walks that were long but didn't cover much distance.

I don't think about it that much, but sometimes I am surprised by that. I sometimes wonder why I didn't turn out to be the kind of picture-book writer who has stuffed animals that go with their books. That would be okay with me.

One of my favorite moments in that book [As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth] was when something happened that I had no idea was going to happen.