Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

I like having my back pressed against a wall and being made to work harder so I don't embarrass myself.

I read very, very little fiction as a kid. All the books I can remember are junior science books.

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

The most difficult book I wrote was the fourth in a series of linked children's books. It was like pulling teeth because the publisher wanted exactly the same but completely different. I'd much rather just do something completely different even if there's a risk of it going wrong.

..because when we look up into the sky at night there will be no darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars, all falling.

If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.