Children simply don't make the distinction; a book is either good or bad. And some of the books they think are good are very, very bad indeed.

I think I've learnt that there is no character so strange that you haven't shared their experience in some small way.

But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.

And because there is something they can’t see people think it has to be special, because people always think there is something special about what they can’t see, like the dark side of the moon, or the other side of a black hole, or in the dark when they wake up at night and they’re scared.

He really did not care whether he survived or not, so long as it rendered him unconscious and absolved him of responsibility.

And this shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.

I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I do not tell lie.