If you must know, I-I had never in my life kissed a young lady, and you are far too beautiful to me to want to get it wrong!

Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once.

A library is a place full of mouth-watering food for thought.

Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person.

Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about.

Every man in Ingary is scared stiff of her. You ought to know how that feels, Sophie dear.

I've often noticed" Fiona said, "that when people say, 'This can't happen in this day and age', they say it because it is happening.