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.'

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

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.

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.

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.

Outside of family, writing is essential. To me, it's like breathing.