Quite suddenly Meggie felt fear rise in her like black brackish water, she felt lost, terribly lost, she felt it in every part of her. She didn't belong here! What had she done?

I wish I had more time to visit schools.

When you open a book it's like going to the theater first you see the curtain then it is pulled aside and the show begins.

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.

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?

Perhaps the story in the book is just the lid on a pan: It always stays the same, but underneath there's a whole world that goes on - developing and changing like our own world.

Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name.