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When you write for children and young adults, you have much more affect and influence on them than when you write for adults. The books that get us through our childhood stay with us for life.

Kids and adults have a difference of opinion when it comes to what constitutes legitimate reading. Adults often push books that they loved as children, which, ironically, were often books that their parents weren't particularly keen on.

I never wrote my books especially for children.

I wish that the adults who are 'in power' cared more about what their children read. Books are incredibly powerful when we are young - the books I read as a child have stayed with me my entire life - and yet, the people who write about books, for the most part, completely ignore children's literature.

I think what makes good children's books is putting the same care and effort into it as if I was writing for adults. I don't write anything - put anything in my books - that I'd be embarrassed to put in an adult book.

You don't need to have kids to write a good book for kids. I don't want my kids to see themselves in my books. Their lives should be their lives.

I am sure of this: that no one can write a book which children will like unless he write it for himself first.

Children will not pretend to be enjoying books, and they will not read books because they have been told that these books are good. They are looking for delight.

Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

As a writer, you should care about reluctant readers. You want these kids to feel like books are amazing and cool and that they're an escape.