I write characters and stories that move me, and I write from the heart.

Adults always wonder what to say and how to say it when they're talking to a child. You want to be wise, but all you are is a child yourself in a larger body. Nothing is ever what it seems. The things that you think you know are never certain. I know that now. I wish that I didn't, but I do.

It's easy to sound good. All you do is leave in the parts where you act tough and forget the parts where you get shoved around.

When dogs fulfill their roles they are ecstatically happy.

Everyone knows dogs. Most people love dogs. I think most American families probably have a dog, but I don't think people really realize or understand just how wonderful and special dogs are.

My family was all police and hard hats at the refineries; they didn't know what to think about me. So I became a closet writer.

I admire people who re-create themselves. And it seems to me that what gives us all the opportunity to be heroic in our own lives is that we work to heal ourselves and be better than we were yesterday.