A lot of dyslexic kids are actually more intelligent than average and are very good, because they've got very good memories, at disguising the fact that they can't read or have got problems in reading and literacy.

The song and dance didn't stop us dying. It just stopped the fear of death swallowing us up while we were still alive.

One of my extraordinary regrets about my death is not so much that it's going to happen but simply that I'll never know what happens next.

Very much in my books people find not surrogate families because they are real families. We've got families that we're related to by blood but we've also got families that we acquire. And those too I think are pretty much part of my books.

If something is worth doing you may as well go heart and soul and boot leather.

I might be able to find out what happened 6,000 years ago but I will never know what happens 6,000 years in the future! And that is not fair, blast it.

For me books have always been an incredibly solid part of my life, both as escapism and simply as resource.