Hope is an essential thread in the fabric of all fantasies, an Ariadne's thread to guide us out of the labyrinth ... Human beings have always needed hope, and surely now more than ever.

Paradoxically, in fantasy for young people I was able to express my own deepest feelings and attitudes more than I had ever done in writing for adults.

A man who claims to be fearless is an idiot or a liar.

Seize the day, whatever's in it to seize, before something comes along and seizes you.

The muse in charge of fantasy wears good, sensible shoes. No foam-born Aphrodite, she vaguely resembles my old piano teacher, who was keen on metronomes.

I loved all the world's mythologies.

Neither refuse to give help when it is needed,... nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.