All of my books are based in some way on my personal experiences, or the experiences of members of my family, or the stories kids would tell me in school.

Anyone who has problems, or worries, anyone who laughs and cries, anyone who feels can write. It's only talking on paper... talking about the things that matter to us.

I loved teaching. It was my world. I only left because I was overwhelmed with three careers - teaching, writing, and my family.

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.

To me, family is everything. I want children to realize how important their families are and what a support system a family is.

Everything in my life affects my writing. There are no separate parts of my life.

Many times in my life I've been upset about something and said to myself, "Will this matter in two years?" Not even in two months.

I myself was terrified during the Second World War. The war started when I was six, and I was so sure that we were going to be bombed and killed. My imagination is my biggest plus and my worst minus.

I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

Outside of family, writing is essential. To me, it's like breathing.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good.

You can't grasp the wonderful and keep your feet on the ground.

My favorite time to dance is at, like, wedding receptions, when it's all ages and everyone seems to be having fun.

Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than we fall down.

The doctor looked at my cardiogram and made that "hmmmm" noise that doctors are taught in medical school so they won't come right out and say "UH-oh!"

How beautiful the days, They come and go.

I do not object to the construction of rail roads and canals.

So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.

Having a white parent undoubtedly makes for a different childhood experience than having two black parents.

Bad things happen because we live in a world with evil.