At one time in my career, Barnes and Noble bookstores categorized my books as religious fiction.

Don't try to write what other people are writing - write what is true to you.

Everyone has some inner power that awaits discovery.

I absolutely love playing the game 'Risk.'

I believe that love is the choice we make to raise ourselves and others to the highest planes of existence.

I believe that we were meant to live as social creatures, to reach out and bless each other's lives.

I have Tourettes syndrome.

I suppose I have an active imagination, and writing allows me to live it out.

I'm a humble guy, okay?

My grandfather, a devout Christian, had the gift of healing.

People are looking for inspiration, and my books are sometimes the vehicles of what people are looking for.

Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.

So much of young adult literature has turned dark, almost pathological. It's almost as if there is a race to see who can be the most dysfunctional.

The concept of spiritual healing was something I was raised with.

The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.

The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.

I find myself seeking out the commonalities of our different religious experiences with hopes of encouraging, through my writings, the most hopeful, loving and redemptive qualities in all of us.

I have a penchant for fresh notebooks and mechanical pencils. It seems every time I go to the store, I buy a new notebook. I have dozens of them just sitting around.

Iwas not a reader at all, not until I discovered 'The Hobbit.' That changed my life. It gave me the courage to read. It led me to the 'Lord of the Rings' series. And once I'd read that, I knew I could read anything because I had just read thousands of pages.