I love adventurous travel. I also love pancakes, and making pancakes for other people. You would definitely find me in the airy treetop as opposed to below ground.
I don't know what Alison [McGhee] thinks, but I very strongly doubt that we will ever see the parents of Bink or Gollie. However, I do think it would be fun to make Tony Fucile draw portraits of the parental units and have those portraits sitting on Bink's mantel or in Gollie's kitchen. Glowering. A little.
I always wanted to be a character, when I worked at Disney, but I wasn't short enough for certain characters and I wasn't tall enough for others. I wanted to be a chipmunk; I think 4'10" was the cutoff.
When I do it [writing] by myself, there's a lot more terror and uncertainty.
The themes in my books, like in life, are about grace and redemption and you never know when they're going to show up and what form they're going to be in. Stories emerge from keeping your heart open to the people that cross in front of you or the dogs or the mice, and their ability to open you up and enrich your life.
There's nothing more fabulous than an adult saying to you, "I think that you might like this one [book]." So I'm grateful every time that happens. It's an amazing thing that people care that passionately.
Miracles and magic pervade the things that I've written, but yet there are no miracles and there is no magic.
I don't think about being a celebrity.
You don't realize what you're going to get, and you can't prepare yourself for it.
If I am just home and writing, I become very strange.
I write two pages - that's all I write. It takes me about an hour. I've learned that's all I'm capable of and to push myself beyond that is foolhardy. It's a very delicate thing, and I will not abuse it. So I write two pages, then I get up from the computer.
Everything when I was a kid was illustrated.
I read whatever the publisher sends me.
I like going to schools and telling classes that when I was a child, I failed every "will this kid become a writer" test.
I'm grateful for every teacher or librarian who reads a book and says, "This is exactly the book that so-and-so needs to read; I'll get it in his hands." I'm amazed at the network of adults who make sure that kids get books.
I am really an introvert, and I need that time alone for a variety of reasons.
Going out and not only meeting the kids, but meeting the teachers and the librarians and seeing the world, fills me up.
I never want to be a role model.
I actually do like traveling.
I have not Googled myself. I have not looked at myself on Amazon. It could drive you wild.
There's a notion of art in this country that you have to be nutty or special or "called" in order to be an artist. I believe the questions everyone should ask themselves are, "Do you want to do it? Are you willing to do it poorly? Are you willing to do the work of doing it? Are you willing to persist when everybody tells you it's silly?" If you're willing to do that, then you can do it.
I need to write, and I can't write when I'm on the road.
I'm just doing what I've done my whole life, which is talking to people about books and making them read. It's what I do in my friendships. "Here, you have to read this, you have to read this."
That you can go anywhere in America and get a book from a library is just the most amazing thing in the world. It's not a duty; it's a privilege and it's a joy. That joy is doubled and tripled and quadrupled if you read with other people.
There's a Buddhist precept that the only thing you deserve is the chance to do the work, and I've been given the chance to do the work.
