I'm more interested in books than people, and I always expect everybody else to be, but they're not.

I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.

Young girls are sad. They like to be; it makes them feel strong.

You know, it's a truism that writers for children must still be children themselves, deep down, must still feel childish feelings, and a child's surprise at the world.

It is good for a man to invite his ghosts into his warm interior, out of the wild night, into the firelight, out of the howling dark.

You can understand a lot about yourself by working out which fairytale you use to present your world to yourself in.

On buses and trains, I always think about the inexhaustible variety of human genes. We see types, and occasionally twins, but never doubles. All faces are unique, and this is exhilarating, despite the increasingly plastic similarity of TV stars and actors.