I read my books aloud before they were published.

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.

Keep trying hard because there is always a next time.

Do we miss not only the past but every future the lost past describes? Is that just the nature of missing? All the lost might-have-beens? The certainty that those uncertain futures are gone?

I pulled out Riptide.

You never know what life can hand you, but YOU have the choice and power to give back love and kindness in all you do and how you treat others.

Wear an unusual accessory to complete your outfit.

The fight against terror is a common imperative for democracies and must become so for all nations.

I've had so many challenges throughout my career, however successful people perceive me to be.

How easy for those who do not bulge to not overindulge!

She only is chaste, who is chaste where there is no danger of detection: she who does not, because she may not, does.

The first thing these people have who succeed, who are fulfilled, is that they’ve decided what the purpose of the game is, at least for right now.