I’m very lucky. I’m very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print – none of them.

In my next life, I want to be tall and thin, parallel park and make good coffee. But for now, I have lots of stuff to work out in my life, but I’ll have that...

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians.

I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now… really good people. But I’m always ready for what comes next.

Sometimes it’s easier to show than it is to tell.

I didn’t expect to be doing a whole bunch of Amber Browns. And because it was just one book, and the father had moved away, I didn’t realize I was going to have to deal...

When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I’d use it in a book.

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren’t monsters, but it wasn’t a good childhood.

At age 12, I was put on tranquilizers when I should have gotten help. There was nothing major and awful, I just didn’t feel my family was supportive and emotionally generous.

The books are funny and sad, and that’s what people respond to.

I try to be careful because technology changes so much over the years. But some things don’t change. Kids and parents have disagreements, kids try to manipulate, parents try to sit down with rules and...

I tried to write with someone else once before, but it was not successful.

None of my characters seem to have had sex yet – I haven’t written about that. And I wouldn’t want to deal with what’s happening in Oregon – the school shootings.

I deal with unhappy marriages a lot. I’ve never been married, I’m single.

I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny.

I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can’t write a message book; you just tell the best story you know how to tell.

Fighting with your best friend is NO fun.

I wish I had had my books when I was a kid, I do.

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.