Why do cats sleep so much? Perhaps they've been trusted with some major cosmic task, an essential law of physics - such as: if there are less than five million cats sleeping at any one time the world will stop spinning.

Fairy tales opened up a door into my imagination - they don't conform to the reality that's around you as a child. I started reading when I was three and read everything, but I wanted to be an actress.

Everyone said, 'Well, you're very old for a first novel,' and I said, 'How do you write when you haven't lived? How do you write when you have no experience? How do you write straight out of university?

Time was a thief, he stole your life away from you and the only way you could get it back was to outwit him and snatch it right back.

What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

The great thing about writing compared to life is getting to tie things up.

You must never believe everything they say about a person. Generally speaking, most of it will be lies, half-truths at best.