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.

I'm not sure we're presenting ourselves as real role models. I don't think literature has ever been a real place for role models.

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.

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

Every Librarian is a highly trained agent. An expert in intelligence, counterintelligence, Boolean searching, and hand-to-hand combat.

Too often we tell kids pleasant stories devoid of truth, and stories without truth are not good stories. Our audience deserves more from us.

I think the trick of writing a good picture book manuscript is to leave that space for illustration. An illustrated novel can do the same thing.