Popularity: 1
Vote:   | After the second wreck, I decided I better try to write before I got hit by a bus. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | Amber Brown is not a perfect child. She doesn't always use her best judgment, she gets into jams and makes lots of mistakes, and Amber's parents make goofs, too. Probably why so many kids identify with her and her family. She doesn't always say or do the right things, and she doesn't have to. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | As for who Amber Brown is, well, she's not a real child, no. She's not me. She's much feistier than I ever was. I think I'm more like Aunt Pam. But I do tend to buy Amber things when I'm out shopping, things I think she'd like or wear. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | At age 12, I was put on tranquilizers when I should have gotten help. There was nothing major and awful, I just didn't feel my family was supportive and emotionally generous. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I always say that the family would now be called dysfunctional; back then we were just Danzigers. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I deal with unhappy marriages a lot. I've never been married, I'm single. |
Popularity: 5
Vote: | I didn't expect to be doing a whole bunch of Amber Browns. And because it was just one book, and the father had moved away, I didn't realize I was going to have to deal more with shared custody, divorce and all those issues. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I had Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. And I liked Nancy because she solved all those mysteries. But Amber Brown seems to have struck a chord with so many kids. I think that's lovely. It's wonderful when I get letters that say how funny she is or how she helps kids get through different things. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can't write a message book; you just tell the best story you know how to tell. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I tried to write with someone else once before, but it was not successful. |
Popularity: 5
Vote: | I try to be careful because technology changes so much over the years. But some things don't change. Kids and parents have disagreements, kids try to manipulate, parents try to sit down with rules and regs. That part never changes. |
Popularity: 5
Vote: | I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what comes next. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I wish I had had my books when I was a kid, I do. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I'm traveling again. I'll be in England, Ireland and Scotland. And I'll be visiting the American School in India soon. I'd also love to do more television. I do an interview show for the BBC in England, and I'd love to do an American version here. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I'm very excited that Putnam has bought my backlist books. Now that people will know who Matthew Martin is, I'm going to do more about him. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print-none of them. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | In my next life, I want to be tall and thin, parallel park and make good coffee. But for now, I have lots of stuff to work out in my life, but I'll have that until the day I die. I want to write more books. |
Popularity: 5
Vote: | It's not about divorce, it's about living. I write about life. People sometimes go. Fathers sometimes leave. It's not all fun and games. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | Mistakes are growth, and we learn not to do it again. But it doesn't make you a terrible person. That's important to me. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | No matter what age you are, if you want something more than anything else, but can't have it, to me, that becomes a plot. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | None of my characters seem to have had sex yet-I haven't written about that. And I wouldn't want to deal with what's happening in Oregon-the school shootings. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | That's what often happens in friendships-people disagree. But if there is respect in friendship, people try to work it out and try to understand the other person's point of view. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | The books are funny and sad, and that's what people respond to. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I'd use it in a book. |