My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.

I thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what [Giuseppe] Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself.

I never set out to write books for children. I don't have a feeling that I'm gonna save children or my life is devoted.

If there's any advice I have to give, I would say it's that. If you're looking for a way to get closer to your kids, there ain't no better way than to grab 'em and read. And if you put them in front of a computer or a TV, you are abandoning them. You are abandoning them because they are sitting on a couch or a floor and they may be hugging a dog, but they ain't hugging you.

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

Parents shouldn't assume children are made out of sugar candy and will break and collapse instantly. Kids don't. We do.

I never thought of Bumble-Ardy in that way. But I still have that same deep feeling for children who are in dire trouble. I see Bumble-Ardy as a lonely, unhappy kid who is doing the very best he can to be in the world, to have a party.