The creative impulse can be killed, but it cannot be taught. What a teacher can do... in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations.

I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive ... and open to growth

The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.

To write for children at all is an act of faith.

I would like to travel light on this journey of life, to get rid of the encumbrances I acquire each day.

My writing knows more than I know. What a writer must do is listen to her book. It might take you where you don’t expect to go. That’s what happens when you write stories. You listen and you say ‘a ha,’ and you write it down. A lot of it is not planned, not conscious; it happens while you’re doing it. You know more about it after you’re done.

To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.