Publishers have realized that, unlike the previous time period, American teenagers are both smarter and require more topical material than they had been giving them before that. For one thing, they'll read thicker books. Besides, has anybody looked at the news or read the newspapers recently?

One of the things I strive for is realism. I need to be as real as possible in the dilemmas my characters face.

Anyone who tells you they don't need to rewrite, they're usually the ones who need it worst.

You mortals are like fish swimming in a globe of glass. That globe is your world. You do not see beyond it.

When people say a knight's job is all glory, I laugh and laugh and laugh. Often I can stop laughing before they edge away and talk about soothing drinks.

I will tell the stork-man.

Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary.