I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

I want to see children curled up with books, finding an awareness of themselves as they discover other people's thoughts. I want them to make the connection that books are people's stories, that writing is talking on paper, and I want them to write their own stories. I'd like my books to provide that connection for them.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

Do you all have a living room floor or a bedroom floor? Then you can write a book.

I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

Sometimes when I visit schools, kids will interview me for the school newspaper. They ask me questions and my answers tend to go on and on, and they try to write down everything I'm saying as quickly as they can. And one day, a kid holds up her hand and said, 'Do you think you could just answer 'yes' or 'no?' Aren't kids wonderful?

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.