Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.

Novels by British writers are among my favorites because our family has enjoyed travel in England and because they are written with an economy of words as if they were written with a pen instead of a computer. Penelope Fitzgerald is a favorite.

My mother always kept library books in the house, and one rainy Sunday afternoon - this was before television, and we didn't even have a radio - I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered I was reading and enjoying what I read.

She means well, but she always manages to do the wrong thing. She has a real talent for it.

I am sort of medium...I guess you could call me the mediumest boy in the class. -Leigh Botts

I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.