“I want to make you laugh or cry when you read a story . . .or do both at the same time. I want your heart, in other words. If you want to learn something, go to school.”

“For me, that emotional payoff is what it’s all about. I want you to laugh or cry when you read a story...or do both at the same time. I want your heart, in other words. If you want to learn something, go to school.”

“Talk. We are going to talk first. I want to see you smile and laugh. I want to know what your favorite show was when you were a kid and who made you cry at school and what boy band you hung posters of on your wall. Then I want you naked in my bed again.”

“I want you to know I want to be part of your life. All of it. I want to make you cry with happiness and I want to be here to wipe away the same tears when you're sad.”

“Making fiction for children, making books for children, isn't something you do for money. It's something you do because what children read and learn and see and take in changes them and forms them, and they make the future. They make the world we're going to wind up in, the world that will be here when we're gone. Which sounds preachy (and is more than you need for a quotebyte) but it's true. I want to tell kids important things, and I want them to love stories and love reading and love finding things out. I want them to be brave and wise. So I write for them.”

“I want to make you happy. I want to give you the wolrd. I want you to be proud of me. I want to comfort you. I want you to comfort me. I want to hold you when your scared. I want you to hold me when I'm scared. I want to make you laugh. I want to make you blush." Leaning in, he whispered, "I want to make you scream.”