All of my books are based in some way on my personal experiences, or the experiences of members of my family, or the stories kids would tell me in school.

What inspired me to become an author? I think it was the snow in New York. I looked out the window and I said, 'Well, I have to get dressed every morning to go to teach, but if I write a book, I can stay home in my bathrobe, eat candy corn.'

Many times in my life I've been upset about something and said to myself, "Will this matter in two years?" Not even in two months.

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

When I sit and talk with a person, I'm not always paying attention. I'm looking at the person and saying, 'What is it about his or her life that appeals to me?

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.

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