It took me ten years and seven books to bag an agent - it took me that long to start writing good.

Pretend to be mad and talk a lot. Then — and this is the important bit — do nothing at all until you absolutely have to and then make sure everyone dies.

Quarkbeasts, for all their fearsome looks, are obedient to a fault. They are nine-tenths velociraptor and kitchen blender and one-tenth Labrador. It was the Labrador tenth that I valued most.

Ordinary adults don't like children to speak of things that are denied them by their own gray minds.

Do you really think you'd win a PR war against a bunch of committed librarians?' He thought about this, but he knew I was right. The libraries were a treasured institution and so central to everyday life that government and commerce rarely did anything that might upset them.Some say they were more powerful than the military, or, if not, they were certainly quieter. As they say: Don't mess with librarians. Only they use a stronger word than 'mess'.

If only life were that simple; if one could jump to the good parts and flick through the bad.

People who read my books have an open mind when it comes to new, bizarre, interesting and exciting ideas.