WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN

You can't be preachy - kids are allergic to messages.

Part of my motivation for writing mysteries for young people is that I loved mysteries when I was growing up, and now that I'm on the creative end of things, I'm discovering that they're even more fun to write!

Writing is work. It takes a lot of contemplation, concentration, and out-and-out sweat. People tend to romanticize it, that somehow your work appears by benefit of some mystical external force. In reality, to be a writer, you have to sit down and write. It's work, and often it's hard work.

What sort of person you grow into should not be achieved by default, and often that's exactly what happens to kids. I see literature as a method of guidance, information, and contemplation, and consider it the greatest compliment possible when a reader tells me that a book of mine really made him/her think.

I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think I'm crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.

My mission as a writer is to give my readers hope to carry with them, and to promote a belief that they can do anything they set their minds to.

I believe in the paramount importance of entertainment, but I have something to say.

If you are interested in writing, get out and live your life! Do a lot. See a lot. Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to the different ways people speak. Read lots of different kinds of books. And then try writing in different voices and styles - don't be afraid to experiment.

I rewrite my books many times before submitting them, and after my editor takes a look I wind up rewriting some more! It's a good thing I learned at an early age to keep on trying. Stick to it, and eventually you'll get there.

I've run my whole life - for more than exercise, for mental health.

Don't even try to talk to me when I'm watching the moon. That's my moon, baby.

There are certain things I believe we need to keep in our emotional arsenal as we navigate through life. Hope is a big one. The more of that we can carry, the better.

I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear. -Bryce

If chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one's universe, then I was well on my way.

I had Flipped. -Bryce Loski

It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.

Somehow the silence seemed to connect us in a way like words never could. - Julianna Baker

It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying!

Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.

I am a runner. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.

I don’t think you’re aloud to be homeschooled if you don’t have a home.

Surely, I thought, a few bushes and some dilapidated wood couldn't stop someone's best and brightest blessing! Surely not!

A painting is more than the sum of its parts,' he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.

It’s funny to hear priests and nuns argue with each other.