I used to sit home with my computer and write. After the Newbery, I probably spend more than half my time on the road.

With a book called 'Keeping Score,' I really did want to write a book about the Korean War, because I felt that it is the least understood war in the American cultural imagination. So I set out with the idea that Americans didn't know much about the Korean War and that I was going to try to fix a tiny bit of that.

I can give advice to anyone interested in writing in one word: Read! I think it's much more important to be a reader than to be a writer!

Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

God bless Interlibrary Loan. I pay a lot of library fines. In the case of 'A Single Shard,' I was using books that hadn't been checked out in 30 years, so I didn't feel too bad.

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

Reading for writers is like training for athletes.

I often have trouble falling asleep at night, so when I'm lying in bed I think up stories. That's where I do a lot of my thinking. I also get a lot of ideas while I'm reading - sometimes reading someone else's stories will make me think of one of my own.

What I like most: Reading well-written sources that take me to another world for hours at a time - and being able to call that work! Also, of course, finding a gem of information that is either exactly what I was looking for, or else fits perfectly into the story in some way.