You cannot write for children They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.

Dreams raise the emotional level of what I'm doing at the moment.

I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness.

Most children - I know I did when I was a kid - fantasize another set of parents. Or fantasize no parents. They don't tell their real parents about that - you don't want to tell Mom and Dad. Kids lead a very private life. And I was a typical child, I think. I was a liar.

Girls are infinitely more complicated than boys, and women more than men.

Make it dangerous or it's not worth doing.

I am not a religious person, nor do I have any regrets. The war took care of that for me. You know, I was brought up strictly kosher, but I - it made no sense to me. It made no sense to me what was happening. So nothing of it means anything to me. Nothing. Except these few little trivial things that are related to being Jewish. ... You know who my gods are, who I believe in fervently? Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson - she's probably the top - Mozart, Shakespeare, Keats. These are wonderful gods who have gotten me through the narrow straits of life.