I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.

My book has a very simple surface, but there are layers of irony and paradox all the way through it.

..and only sticks and stones can break my bones.

Indeed, I am repeatedly astonished by the number of really good writers who understand human beings so well on paper but don't know how to deal with them in real life.

I think most writers feel like they're on the outside looking in much of the time... All of us feel, to a certain extent, alienated from the stuff going on around us.

... He had always rather liked emergencies. Other people's at any rate. They put your own problems into perspective. It was like being on a ferry. You didn't have to think about what you had to do or where you had to go for the next few hours. It was all laid out for you.

I want my name to mean me.