Free and fair access to books - to reading - is a right and one we should fight for.

Lots of people have objections to prizes of all types, and it would be extraordinary if everybody agreed on anything that's worthwhile - they never do.

There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers, and it is this -- the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.

People have different views of how you deal with different issues in literature, and, frankly, long may it last that there is a range of views.

What we leave behind in this life is the memory of who we were and what we did. An imprint, no more.

What we attempt to do is not without danger. What we attempt to do may not succeed. But it is right and it is just. We act for the good of all.

There's no black and no white, just shades of grey...But the small betrayals lead to bigger ones, morality is eroded.