I think i'm just breathing, that's all. And there's a difference between breathing and being alive.

Don't make it worse by thinking it's more painful than it actually is.

I think that books for young people should have serious and important themes, they shouldn't be trivial. So the books I write, they would be the kind of stories you would write in an adult novel only they just happen to feature a child at the center of them.

Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away. As a writer, my interest has become in writing about much more emotional, personal topics. I'm trying to reach into subjects I have never written about before.

Their lost voices must continue to be heard.

War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept.

Today people can see and protest all the different interests that want war to happen, the people it financially benefits. The First World War wasn't fought for that reason. The Second World War wasn't fought for that reason. Your entire country and way of life could be overtaken.