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

And then I thought that I had to be like Sherlock Holmes and I had to detach my mind at will to a remarkable degree so that I did not notice how much it was hurting inside my head.

Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.

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

Siobhan said that when you are writing a book you have to include some descriptions of things. I said that I could take photographs and put them in the book. But she said the idea of a book was to describe things using words so that people could read them and make a picture in their own head.

Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.

Mother used to say it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.