Rebecca Stead

“I am basically in awe of every family's ability to make decisions for their kids.”

“I try to remember what it was like to be a kid in New York. I lived in different parts of my childhood in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, where 'When You Reach Me' is set, and also in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.”

“Well, it's simple to love someone," she said. "But it's hard to know when you need to say it out loud.”

“We're allowed as adults to create a life that we like. Kids don't have that freedom.”

“I think things hit me very hard, and I wish I had allowed things to roll off my back a little bit more.”

“I've met seven homeschooling families through many, many extracurricular activities such as fencing. I don't have a point of view of homeschooling. For some families, homeschooling works.”

“Probably because I really love this bookmaking and storytelling world, I'd been thinking for years about the possibility of becoming a literary agent.”

“I think that's one of the most important things that books do: not to teach you anything, but to help you teach yourself by just being in the world of the book and having your own thoughts and reactions and noticing your own reactions and thoughts and learning about yourself that way.”

“And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love.”

“Didn't you ever have a father yourself? You don't want him for a reason. You want him because he's your father.' So I figured it's because I never had a father that I don't want one now. A person can't miss something she never had.”

“I think that my first book - I was trying to write the kind of book I would have loved as a kid. So it's sort of, like, a book inspired by my childhood reading and the passion that I felt about reading when I was a kid.”

“Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.' 'In the way of what?' 'In the way of what's true.”

“I do try to write in ways that reflect reality, and I think that reality is rarely simple.”

“On Sunday, I think the most important thing for me is to just turn my brain off. The idea of not trying is the key, because that's where you're relaxed enough to let your brain make new connections.”

“The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that no one is stopping you. There's no one saying, 'You can't do that.'”

“I like to write about questions that interest me, not the conclusions I've come to.”

“A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas.”

“Every published writer suffers through that first draft because most of the time, that's a disappointment.”

“I personally find the ideas that girls need to cover their shoulders in school a little bit strange... when we're telling girls, you know, 'You have to cover your shoulders because otherwise you're a distraction to other people in your class,' probably something is wrong.”

“In so many ways, being a literary agent is an irresistible job to me. Not only does it involve all the things I love - being an advocate for others, problem solving, and going to meetings - yes, that's true, I love meetings, though everyone says it's bizarre! - but most importantly, I love working with people whose writing excites me.”