Old Japanese saying, live scorpion in pants makes life interesting.

I stay in contact with kids, and that is a lot of fun for me, not only to get their letters but to meet them in schools and see that the books really have engaged their hearts and imaginations. That's what makes it so worthwhile.

The Internet is like a gold-rush; the only people making money are those who sell the pans.

I often read nonfiction, and some of my ideas begin there.

So much of writing is discovery. Sometimes I feel like a rat in a maze, trying to discover the way out. My little heart is beating, and I'm racing down a path thinking, this is the route, it will get me there, as I turn this way and then that.

Once you're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversations and actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over.

An image often propels the novel, gets it started. For me, it's an image that has a lot of emotion connected to it.