When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.

If you do enough planning before you start to write, there's no way you can have writer's block. I do a complete chapter by chapter outline.

Well, I hate it when authors come into a school and they say to kids, 'Write from your heart, only write what you know, and write from your heart.' I hate that because it's useless. I've written over 300 books - not one was written from my heart. Not one. They were all written for an audience, they were all written to entertain a certain audience.

Everything that has happened to me has been amazing and surprising.

You guys are just jealous because i'm a natural athlete and you can't cross the street without falling on your face." -(Bird) Doug

Well, when I was 13, for my bar mitzvah I received my first typewriter. And that was special.

It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.