Pajamas are good for the soul.

Life is really just a bunch of nows, one after the other.

I'm an old man, and she's gone now. So don't worry, okay?

Try really, really hard not to judge your own work too harshly.

Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean.

Boredom is what happens to people who have no control over their minds.

I think that kids are a wonderful, wonderful reader to have in your head.

I am basically in awe of every family's ability to make decisions for their kids.

I like to write about questions that interest me, not the conclusions I've come to.

She's called the secretary, but as far as I can tell she basically runs the school.

My kids really like food, and they like to cook, so it's a lot of fun to shop with them.

I do try to write in ways that reflect reality, and I think that reality is rarely simple.

I have nothing like a writing routine. I sometimes have trouble buckling down to write at home.

I think if you can take something out and it doesn't change the book, it doesn't need to be there.

I don't know. I just feel stuck, like I'm afraid to take any steps, in case they're the wrong ones.

Well, it's simple to love someone," she said. "But it's hard to know when you need to say it out loud.

Every published writer suffers through that first draft because most of the time, that's a disappointment.

When you trust your readers, you're hoping they will see what you see. Not every book is for every person.

A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas.

Anyone who's familiar with my writing schedule knows that there is always plenty of time between books for me!

When something works for you, all you can do is cross your fingers and hope that it will work for someone else.

Beautiful and fresh, Girl Saves Boy is full of the absolute truth-life is complicated. I could not put it down.

During the week,I'm really focused on writing and output. Sunday is a day when I really try not to write at all.

As a reader, I much prefer to read a book where people embody all kinds of ideas and everybody is making mistakes.

The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that no one is stopping you. There's no one saying, 'You can't do that.'

Mom's always telling me to smile and hoping I'll turn into a smiley person, which, to be honest, is kind of annoying.

For me one of the most important things is not feeling like you have to protect yourself if you're with a real friend.

My books tend to have a lot of questions in them, and they tend to avoid black and white, for lack of a better metaphor.

I try to write about internal experience versus the external self. I like to present ideas, but not package them neatly.

Nice tights," I snorted. Or I tried to snort, anyway. I'm not exactly sure how, though people in books are always doing it.

Like when that man was running down Broadway stark naked and we all had to eat in the cafeteria while the police tried to catch him.

Mostly what I try to do is build emotion. Only I'd prefer not to do it by telling you about emotion but by pushing that emotion down.

But every person has to learn to accept what has happened in the past. Without bitterness. Or there is no point in continuing with life.

'Middle school' is used as shorthand for a time when things change. It's a time a lot of kids feel like they don't even have one good friend.

Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.

Probably because I really love this bookmaking and storytelling world, I'd been thinking for years about the possibility of becoming a literary agent.

I would never look a gift horse in the mouth. I've had some lovely homemade earrings and, recently, a wall hanging made in the style of Georges Seurat.

There was a boy in my building who was my best friend when I was growing up. There was also a mysterious person on my corner who we called the Laughing Man.

Many of the books on my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars make people - including me -- happy.

I think we must all feel that there are people out there who know things about our young selves, you know, our early, early lives, that no one else can ever know.

I love a book that makes me ask questions about what I think or how I see the world or how I feel, so I hope that 'Goodbye, Stranger' is that kind of book for some people.

The writing process is not just putting down one page after another-it's a lot of writing and then rewriting, restructuring the story, changing the way things come together.

I loved reading all kinds of books, but I particularly loved books like 'Red Planet' by Robert Heinlein, which very few people read anymore but is a wonderful science fiction story.

I think of 'Liar & Spy' as completely different and actually not at all like a 'When You Reach Me'-type story. I feel like 'Liar & Spy' has a much quieter, more emotional revelation.

Trying to forget really doesn't work. In fact, it's pretty much the same as remembering. But I tried to forget anyway, and to ignore the fact that I was remembering you all the time.

I've met seven homeschooling families through many, many extracurricular activities such as fencing. I don't have a point of view of homeschooling. For some families, homeschooling works.

I don't know whether I could visit a new neighborhood now and have a kid's set of observations about a place. I no longer can really think like a child, though I can remember thinking like one.

I'm always thinking about identity. And the middle-school years are a time of exploring questions about who you are and who you want to be. For the first time, you see the world in a broader sense.

I like to talk about weirdness. We all have strange thoughts and ideas, and when you really trust someone you can express them. And they can express them to you, and that's one of the joys of life.

I am hoping to work with writers publishing books for first time, since I of course remember what that experience is like. It's all a bit of a mystery for new authors who don't know what to expect.

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