I get up in front of a bunch of kids and say 'Hey, I'm gonna tell you a new story. Who wants to be in a new story?' Well some kid always sticks up their hand and that gives me a name, but it doesn't give me a story. I just say whatever comes to my mind and usually it's not that good. Every once in a while, however, I say something that turns into a really good story.

Every author has different ways of writing and what works for one author does not necessarily work for another.

I tell the stories in front of audiences and wait for something to happen. It's similar to a standup comic doing his schtick for an audience.

Writing is a bit like swimming. You learn writing by doing it and you learn swimming by doing it. Nobody learns how to swim by reading a book about swimming and nobody learns how to write by reading a book about writing. If you want to learn how to write, write a lot and you will get better at it.

If you don't remember childhood and you idealize it, you can't write books for kids because they're not real. Kids pick that up.

Clang Clang Rattle Bing Bang, Gonna make my noise all day!

Success is a wonderful addition to my life.