He looked at the piles of food again, and it was like he was seeing it with new eyes. "This is wrong", he thought, "Letting food rot while people die of hunger. It's evil.".... He breathed in the too-sweet smell of rotting food, "I can stop this evil.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

He made time travel sound almost like hide-and-seek or capture the flag or some other spylike game--only with higher stakes and greater consequences.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people you hate. But you must still dare to love. The rewards are worth far more than the risks.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I can't go back to being who I used to be!' Hadley looked down at him sympathetically.' None of us can, kid.' he said. 'That's the point. You get what you get. Life changes you. Time travel or no, you always have to build on what you live through.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I'm telling strange tales.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I loved to read when I was a kid, and as soon as I realized that an actual person got to make up the books I loved so much, I decided that that was the job for me.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

...is any history really all that ancient?... Doesn't every moment from the past affect the present?

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I snorted "oh, beauty. What's that good for?" Mary stared, her eyes round." It won you the prince, did it not?" I snorted again, I prefer to think that he was captivated by my charming personality." I giggled to let Mary know I was trying to make fun of myself.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

I start to think, 'It's awful being too poor to even buy my own dress for homecoming.' But that's instantly swept away by another thought: 'I'm so lucky that someone cats enough to loan me a dress.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix

It’s like I’d been walking a tightrope with a big safety net underneath me, but I never really thought about the net until someone took it away. And then every single step scared me to death.

— Margaret Peterson Haddix