I am a people watcher and I have a very good memory.

Sometimes, I get ideas from dreams. Often, my stories are based on adventures that I, or my friends, have actually lived.

I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old could write that well. I was even punished because my teacher thought I'd lied about writing it! I had always loved to write, but it was then that I realized that I had a talent for it.

I still pinch meself when I wake up of a morning. Who ever thought I'd be a children's author - let alone a best-selling children's author?

I've carved a different path which is not that affected by what happens in the bad side of politics. I've always surrounded myself with music and art and love and all those things - pleasures that are sort of immune from all that.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

My creativity for making women feel beautiful is one of the reasons I love being Latina. Just making people feel more attractive was always a goal of mine; the creativity - I think it has a lot to do with my culture as well.

I think 'GoodFellas' is just a perfect film. From an efficiency of storytelling standpoint, from an entertainment standpoint, from a performance standpoint, from a use of music standpoint, from a cinematography and editing standpoint - to me, it's just a perfect movie.