I used to sit home with my computer and write. After the Newbery, I probably spend more than half my time on the road.

A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.

Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

My first publication was a haiku in a children's magazine when I was 9 years old. I received one dollar for it! I gave the check to my dad for Christmas, and he framed it and hung it over his desk.

Reading for writers is like training for athletes.

I can give advice to anyone interested in writing in one word: Read! I think it's much more important to be a reader than to be a writer!

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

God bless Interlibrary Loan. I pay a lot of library fines. In the case of 'A Single Shard,' I was using books that hadn't been checked out in 30 years, so I didn't feel too bad.

With you, it's different. It's like a coming home.

The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

Life is not all high emotion. Some of the most interesting things are when its not highly emotional: little details of relationships and body language.

I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule.

Happiness hates the timid. So does science.

The Organization of American States couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

You cannot become a power in your community nor achieve enduring success in any worthy undertaking until you become big enough to blame yourself for your own mistakes and reverses.

Every race, every art has its hypocrisy. The world is fed with a little truth and many lies.

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative.

A lot of dramas get a bad name commercially because they are unremittingly bleak.