Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them.

I pledge to set out to live a thousand lives between printed pages. I pledge to use books as doors to other minds, old and young, girl and boy, man and animal. I pledge to use books to open windows to a thousand different worlds and to the thousand different faces of my own world. I pledge to use books to make my universe spread much wider than the world I live in every day. I pledge to treat my books like friends, visiting them all from time to time and keeping them close.

Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them.

Children, they're the same everywhere. Greedy little creatures but the best listeners in the world - any world. The very best of all.

Ten minutes can be a long time when you're waiting with a beating heart for something you don't understand, something you don't really want to know.

How fast the ears learned to tell what sounds meant, much faster than it took the eyes to decipher written words.

Every book should begin with attractive endpapers. Preferably in a dark colour: dark red or dark blue, depending on the binding. When you open the book it's like going to the theatre. First you see the curtain. Then it's pulled aside and the show begins.