When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I'd use it in a book..

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them.

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians..

I deal with unhappy marriages a lot. I've never been married, I'm single.

Pistachio nuts, the red ones, cure any problem..

I feel like I'm addicted to the printed word..

We spend our whole lives recovering from high school..

I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can't write a message book; you just tell the best story….

I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny..

Mistakes are growth, and we learn not to do it again. But it doesn't make you a terrible person. That's important to me..

I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what come….

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a stor….

Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell.

I try to be careful because technology changes so much over the years. But some things don't change. Kids and parents have disagreements, kids try to….

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but….

In my next life, I want to be tall and thin, parallel park and make good coffee. But for now, I have lots of stuff to work out in my life, but I'll h….

At age 12, I was put on tranquilizers when I should have gotten help. There was nothing major and awful, I just didn't feel my family was supportive ….

I tried to write with someone else once before, but it was not successful..

I didn't expect to be doing a whole bunch of Amber Browns. And because it was just one book, and the father had moved away, I didn't realize I was go….

It's not easy being so frightened of everything. And when I think of how much I've improved in the last year, I wonder when I'll ever get finished wi….

I wish I had had my books when I was a kid, I do.