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!

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

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.

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.

My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories.

Yeah, I got a lot of inspiration from Three 6 as far as my sound.

If they're not talking about you, you're not doing something; you're not doing anything. So if they're talking about you, you may be doing something right. And when they talk bad about you, you just use it for motivation.

The V&A is an amazing museum, and the collections have always been a great inspiration to me.