As a rule, my focus is on classical music, but I love jazz. I love everything, actually.

I Google'd myself a lot of times believe me. A lot of people know more about me than I knew.

All careers go up and down like friendships, like marriages, like anything else, and you can't bat a thousand all the time.

I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.

If somebody can act out one of the books as a play, if they can see a play, film, or television show that's related, that can be so stimulating for them. Anything that makes children engage and think - and love what the story is about - can only bring the most enormous rewards.

Because I come from the theater, I use the images of the theater and of movies a great deal when I write. I see the story in my head. I have to break down the outline of a story first. I have to know where I'm going. Usually I have a good beginning and a good ending, and then I think, "Now I have to find my way through it."

Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.