One of my favorite moments in that book [As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth] was when something happened that I had no idea was going to happen.

In some ways I'm very structured.

I felt ten years old and a thousand years old, but I didn't know how to be my own age. I had never felt that way before, but now I feel like that a lot.

I love when I'm trying to do something I don't know how to do, and it kind of figures itself out along the way. And that means messing up a lot. That means throwing away a lot of drawings.

I generally have an idea where I want to go, but I don't know how I'm going to get there.

A long time ago, I had an idea to make a book for preschoolers who had older siblings who were going to school.

I had a general outline of subjects. The way I start my days is my husband brings me a thermos of coffee up to the bedroom.

I knew what infinity was. Being a previous art student, I knew about some art concepts.

Some of it just involved thinking about, for example, the different kinds of science, what chemistry is.

I [drinking coffee] for about an hour, I get dressed and go down in my studio, and that's a different kind of working.

In the bedroom time I have generated thoughts, and then in the studio I take those thoughts and try to shape them into something.

May the people walking in darkness see the dawn of a glorious light.

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.

Ultimately, physical resemblance isn't as important as whether this person can bring this character to life in a way that's compelling and makes me care about what happens to them.

A strong mind is one of the key components that separates the great from the good.

I believe that prayer is our powerful contact with the greatest force in the universe.

Right or wrong, the customer is always right.

The fight for sanity in our gun safety laws is not by any means over. In many ways it's just beginning.

Today solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is the grace and need of our time. Society will be restored and renewed when all its members group themselves around our Emmanuel.

America needs rebooting.

Public life is constantly aware of the volcano.