Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

Jane Austen was writing about boring people with desperately limited lives. We forget this because we've seen too many of her books on screen.

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.