Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.

This was a very progressive group of clergy who foresaw the race riots that were going to take place when Dr. King started helping the local civil rights community push for open housing. They were sort of hoping against hope that we could educate kids in a way that could counter some of the racist messages they were imbibing at home. I don't know whether we did any good, but it changed my life in every single way.

I think Peter Dickinson is hands down the best stylist as a writer and the most interesting storyteller in my genre.

Nothing kinder than strangers. Nothing stranger than kindness.

It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating

Don't tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don't believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn't possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah.

Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel