I have always taken the view that one should never hold against a man anything he says after twelve o'clock at night or after a glass or two of anything.

I've also long since realized that the way to really engage children is to give out prizes; it's amazing how it concentrates their minds.

But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably havent read them.

Most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.

I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

She was made for untidy rooms and rumpled beds.

A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?