Clearly, I'm drawn to characters with inner conflicts.

Having a literary agent makes a huge difference in submitting work. My agent has access and tremendous passion.

I have always loved fantasy; I think probably stepping through the wardrobe with Lucy in C.S. Lewis's 'Narnia Chronicles' was my first exposure when I was really little.

When I started really writing fantasy, one of the things I noticed was a real absence of sexuality in the genre at all. And it's such a profound part of the human experience that it's a really big thing to leave out.

Essentially, there's no scientific evidence whatsoever that could ever be presented to me that would wipe out my fundamental spiritual beliefs.

Children in schools need to have something to do with music and learn it the way they do literature, geography and biology.

It is a shock to us in the twentieth century to discover, from observations science has made, that the fundamental mechanisms of life cannot be ascribed to natural selection, and therefore were designed. But we must deal with our shock as best we can and go on.

A big part of engaging kids in science is not getting the single, correct answer; it's being willing to work with students to discover the correct answer.