...it’d be like looking for a needle in a burning haystack.' 'Oh, I’ve done that,' Mark said airily. 'It’s a game we used to play, after we got rid of all our livestock and didn’t need our hay no more. You throw a match into the haystack, give the fire a three-second head start, and begin looking. You can find the needle every time if you work quick

Fail big if you have to, but go down trying.

Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

There's something about each of my books that I'm really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.

Nothing was more valuable than the printed word.

Amazing, Yetta thought. Back home I couldn't have chosen my own husband. And here I'm thinking about choosing presidents, governors, mayors, laws.

I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I'm telling strange tales.