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

I'm getting old. And I'm disappointed in everything just the way old people traditionally, boringly are. That bothers me because is it too traditional? Am I not fighting hard enough? I don't feel the fight. I don't feel it.

There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.

Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences.

Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.

If you're making it up, make it up good. And then believe in what you made up.

I don't believe in things literally for children. That's a reduction.