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I wrote a few children's books... not on purpose.

I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.

I was incredibly determined - I wrote short stories, I wrote the beginnings of novels. I wrote a little children's book and sent it to the editor-in-chief of the children's division of Simon and Schuster and she asked me to write a little children's book for a series she was doing.

I was one of those kids who always wrote.

I like to write books that I would have liked as a child, that would have got me thinking and imagining beyond the words on the page. In a way, my audience is always how I remember myself as a child.

My last book, 'The Language of Flowers,' I wrote completely on naptime, when my little kids were asleep.

When I wrote 'Marley & Me,' I had a clear audience in mind. And it did not include children. I wrote my book for adults and assumed only adults, and possibly teenagers, would be drawn to it.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I'd written, I don't want to leave that behind.