I was a very sickly child. My parents were immigrants. They were not decorous. They were not discreet. They always thought I was gonna die.

How do you write for children? I really have never figured that out. So I decided to just ignore it

Because love is so enormous, the only thing you can think of doing is swallowing the person that you love entirely.

[Drawing] and making things was all we ever did. My brother and I built the entire New York World's Fair of 1939 in miniature out of wax. The floor of our room was covered with little waxen buildings. Nobody else could come in.

I'm not jaded. I never have been jaded. I've always been surprised at my success. I've always enjoyed it.

It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.

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.