It's a good idea to have your own books with you in a strange place

What on earth have you packed in here? Bricks?" asked Mo as he carried Meggie's book-box out of the house. You're the one who says books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them," said Meggie.

Why do grown-ups think it's easier for children to bear secrets than the truth? Don't they know about the horror stories we imagine to explain the secrets?

Her curiosity was too much for her. She felt almost as if she could hear the books whispering on the other side of the half-open door. They were promising her a thousand unknown stories, a thousand doors into worlds she had never seen before.

Books are like flypaper, memories cling to the printed pages better than anything else.

My children were all made from paper and printer's ink.

Fire and water," he said, "don't really mix. You could say they're incompatible. But when they do love each other, they love passionately.