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?

The reasons kids get into trouble in one way or another is because - Who ever told them they were special?

I myself was terrified during the Second World War. The war started when I was six, and I was so sure that we were going to be bombed and killed. My imagination is my biggest plus and my worst minus.

If you have a friend, things are better than if you didn't have a friend.

I loved teaching. It was my world. I only left because I was overwhelmed with three careers - teaching, writing, and my family.

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

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