Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.

The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

It's all about your determination, I think, as much as anything. There are a lot of people with talent, but it's that determination.

The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

I am a big defender of 'Harry Potter,' and I think any book that gets kids to read are books that we should cherish, we should be thankful for them.

I love to watch movies.

I loved to read, and I think any child who loves to read will read anything, including the back of the cereal box, which I did every morning.

I meet people on the street or at book signings and they tend to treat me as if they know me, as if we're connected. It's great.

I think people who write for kids, we have that ability to go back into our own lives.

I wanted to write what I remembered to be true.

I'm an e-mail junkie though I'm trying to read my in-box only twice a day and to answer all at once.

I'm really quite bad at coming up with plot ideas. I like to create characters and just see what will happen to them when I let them loose!

Ideas seem to come from everywhere - my life, everything I see, hear, and read, and most of all, from my imagination. I have a lot of imagination.

It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.

The child from nine to 12 interests me very much. And so, those were the years that I like to write about, when I'm writing.

The creative process; I enjoy thinking up the stories and situations for my books.

What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.

When I started to write, it was the '70s, and throughout that decade, we didn't have any problems with book challenges or censorship.

I always have trouble with titles for my books. I usually have no title until the editor has to present the book and calls me frantically, 'Judy, we need a title.'