Pranking is a great way to indicate the underlying absurdities of the world.

Danger is the snack food of a true sleuth.

I love those adult writers with the pranking ethos, [Don] DeLillo and [Donald] Barthelme and David Foster Wallace. I don't see any reason not to bring those kinds of influences to bear on books for children.

We put authors on such a pedestal, and it's a moment that humanizes the whole thing, and lends an absurdity to what otherwise is a "please sit with your hands on your lap" kind of event.

It's a sort of patronizing idea that literature for children has to feature role models of exemplary behavior. I think not only is that bogus, but it leads to really boring books.

Kevin Cornell and I have worked together a bunch.

I'd much rather have a book that a few people love intensely than a book that a lot of people like okay.