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One of the things that made me try writing novels was I could take time off to be with the kids. That's the practical side of what I love about the writing life.

I resisted children's writing for a long time. I saw myself as a writer of literary fiction. But I had so much more fun writing kids' books.

I wanted to become a writer. I enjoyed reading as a child.

Even if I couldn't get my early novels published, I could still write. I went into newspapers, where I got paid to write every day. If there's a better school for would-be novelists, I don't know what it is.

I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer, particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that.

One of the first serious attempts I made to write a novel was when I was in Grade 6 and I had read 'Matilda.' I wrote my own version and my teacher had it bound and permitted me to read it to the class - cementing my love of reading, writing and Roald Dahl!

I tried writing fiction as a little kid, but had a teacher humiliate me, so didn't write again until I was a senior in college.

My parents were avid readers. Both had ambitions to write that had been abandoned early in life in order to get on with life.

I had novels to write, so I wrote them.

I didn't write anything at all except book reports until I was in seventh grade, and then I wrote mostly poetry for myself.