Time plays tricks between here and home," said Mogget sepulchrally, frightening the life out of the telephone operator.

Your father is angry with me because he thinks I almost got myself killed,' said Sabriel, with a slight grin. 'I don't understand it myself, since I think he should be glad that I didn't.

I think I've actually benefited from Australia being a kind of combination of both British and American culture. We kind of got the best of both British and American television and books, science fiction and fantasy, and so on. So I'm familiar with a lot of, for example, American books and television that a British author of my generation might not be.

I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!

But think of how much worse it would be to sit here, not knowing. Until the Dead choke the Ratterlin and Hedge walks across the dry bed of the river to batter down the door.

More advice. Don't go near the Old One. Do go near the Old One. Don't stay past twelve. Trust the Will. Don't trust the Will. I wish someone would tell me something straightforward for once.

Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was.