There's a mystery there, a clue, a nut, a bolt, and if I put it together, I find me.

I stress character, character, character.

I've always loved pigs: the shape of them, the look of them, and the fact that they are so intelligent.

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

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

Children are the best living audience in the world because they are so thoroughly honest.

I think it is unnatural to think that there is such a thing as a blue-sky, white-clouded happy childhood for anybody. Childhood is a very, very tricky business of surviving it. Because if one thing goes wrong or anything goes wrong, and usually something goes wrong, then you are compromised as a human being. You're going to trip over that for a good part of your life.