In my stories for children, I sometimes show a hard, harsh, dangerous world. I'm going to show you the way it is, but I'm going to also tell you that there's every reason to hope.

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

No one succeeds without effort. ... Those who succeed owe their success to their perseverance.

If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.

What a miserable thing life is: you're in clover; only the clover isn't good enough.

Don't get simple mixed up with simplistic.

We call for a new kind of offensive in the Middle East because our current approach has a track record and it's not a good one.

There is no love where there is no will

'Alias' was very action-packed. 'G.I. Joe' and 'Conan' were very action-packed. It's been established that I can do action, which is great, but now I may just want to make out with a really hot guy.

The ego does not, cannot live in the present, because the present is real and the ego is false - they never meet.

To be an inventor, you have to be willing to live with a sense of uncertainty, to work in this darkness and grope towards an answer, to put up with anxiety about whether there is an answer.

My old life - no amount of getting used to it would have made it right.