I've always liked getting away with just a little bit of what you're not supposed to. Like my first book, Billy's Booger, got me in trouble with the principal's office.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think we all like to get away from our troubles and worries with a good book.
Books were this wonderful escape for me because I could open a book and disappear into it, and that was the only way out of that house when I was a kid.
I always resented books that tried to teach a lesson, where the characters are too good: They don't swear, they tell their mothers everything.
One of the most memorable things I hear is when someone tells me that my books got a reluctant reader to read.
One of the first times that I went into a book store and saw a bunch of my books, my impulse was to put them all under my coat and run away so that no one else could see them, even though, of course, I wanted everyone to see them.
I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.
It's been a pattern in my life - when I get in trouble, I try to get out of it, since I was little.
I resisted writing a book for a long time because I didn't want to invade anyone else's privacy or hurt anyone or anger anyone.
I never want to deal with a book once I'm finished writing.
A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I've got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time.