Gail Carson Levine

I have a very vivid memory of the way my parents spoke, and the 50's that I grew up in are closer to the 20's, I think, than today in many, many ways. ”

Most of the authors I liked were dead, so it didn't seem like a safe occupation. ”

Sometimes the kids come up with better endings than the real story. ”

Get to know your kids' minds and how they think. ”

If a big person invests time in reading, kids learn reading is important, the child is important, words are important, stories are important. ”

I loved fairy tales as a kid, so that's where my mind gravitates. ”

I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer, particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that. ”

My interest in the theater led me to my first writing experience as an adult. My husband David wrote the music and lyrics and I wrote the book for a children's musical, 'Spacenapped' that was produced by a neighborhood theater in Brooklyn. ”

Contemporary fiction is the hardest for me because I am not really in the popular culture - I don't watch TV. ”

Ideas sometimes come from nowhere, and sometimes they take lots of thinking. ”