The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.

I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.

One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.

With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.

Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.

She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.

I didn't start out writing to give children hope, but I'm glad some of them found it.

Nothing in the whole world felt as good as being able to make something from a sudden idea.

I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.

The Fiction defense. Sometimes I just need to use it.

They’d have people out looking for her, and nothing makes grown-ups quite so mad as finding a child safe when they’d been scared silly that they might find that child dead.

On angel's wings, love flew in.

Paganism is infectious, more infectious than diphtheria or piety.

The seed dies into a new life, and so does man.

If I look back to when I was 20 and somebody said you'd be president, I would have said no way.

This is a new phase in history where art, science, business and spirit will join together in the pursuit of true wealth.

We know that defence work results in more than great defence hardware - it can drive innovation and advances in all areas of our life.

My body was braille for the creeping influences.

When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound; when Jesus groaned, a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around.