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.
Mark HaddonThe word "metaphor" means carrying something from one place to another . . . and it is when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn't. This means that the word "metaphor" is a metaphor. I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people people do not have skeletons in their cupboards. And when I try and make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imagining and apple in someone's eye doesn't have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about.
Mark HaddonChildren 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.
Mark HaddonFiction that responds to recent world events is a hostage to fortune because all momentous events look very different a year, two years, three years later.
Mark HaddonYou could ask for hugs if you were feeling sad or you'd hurt yourself, but when it happened spontaneously it made you feel warm inside.
Mark HaddonAnd I go out of Father's house and I walk down the street, and it is very quiet even thought it is the middle of the day and I can't hear any noise except birds singing and wind and sometimes buildings falling down in the distance, and if I stand very close to traffic lights I can hear a little click as the colors change.
Mark Haddon