I didn't want to be a writer. First I wanted to act, and then I wanted to be a painter like my big sister.

I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer, particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that.

If a big person invests time in reading, kids learn reading is important, the child is important, words are important, stories are important.

Most of my job life has had to do with welfare, first helping people find work and then as an administrator. The earlier experience was more direct and satisfying, and I enjoy thinking that a bunch of people somewhere are doing better today than they might have done if not for me.

Most of the authors I liked were dead, so it didn't seem like a safe occupation.

My interest in the theater led me to my first writing experience as an adult. My husband David wrote the music and lyrics and I wrote the book for a children's musical, 'Spacenapped' that was produced by a neighborhood theater in Brooklyn.