My dad was a janitor for U.S. Radium Corporation, and he stayed there for 37 years. So he didn't read.

As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart - often for years - until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.

I couldn't speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that sense.

I wrote for magazines. I wrote adventure stuff, I wrote for the 'National Enquirer,' I wrote advertising copy for cemeteries.

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

Violence was just as much about WHAT was happening as it was how it happened.

With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.