“In terms of an immigrant story, I would definitely recommend Sandra Cisneros' THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET. Her vivid language and imagery are just amazing. My inspiration for STEP came directly from her.”

— on A STEP FROM HEAVEN (YA)

" Before signing me, she put a challenge to me; do another rewrite and trim seventy-five pages in the process. Seventy-five! I didn't think I could do it, but figured it would be good experience. She knew what she was talking about because it really was a much better book after that."

—on DAEMON HALL (YA)

“I was intrigued with this character because Nine cuts against the grain of so many characters you see in YA fiction – bored, angsty kids who come from dysfunctional families, broken homes, and/or who are simply mad at the world, sometimes for no discernible reason.”

— on TEACH ME (YA)

“Well, wrangling story (fiction or non) into a communicable and interesting form is certainly one of the mysteries of human life, but the tools for accomplishing that are neither magic nor miracle, and once internalized, they liberate the writer to speak in his own voice.”

— on SHOW; DON’T TELL! SECRETS OF WRITING (PB)

"It's a picture book about a human family who makes a living renting themselves out as pets, pretending to be dogs, cats, lizards, pigs...you name it!"

--on JACK OF ALL TAILS (PB)

"This is a 120-something-page book that began as a picture-book proposal, which says how drastically it's evolved. My editor drove the project from the beginning. She was enthusiastic about the photos and, as I fed her sections of text encouraged me to dig deeper and let it grow."

—on ONE KINGDOM (NF)

“I had always heard that in researching where to send a manuscript, you should look for a publisher who is publishing books like yours, and furthermore, for your manuscript even to be considered, it must be completely unique. Very paradoxical.”

— on MYRTLE OF WILLENDORF (YA)

"I was lucky to have a born and bred Southerner as my editor. He could feel the rhythm of the story, even though the Yiddish-inflected English of Shlemiel Crooks wasn't something he was familiar with."

—on SHLEMIEL CROOKS (PB)