Use your imagination and you'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care.

But I don't feel sad about it. Because Mother is dead. And because Mr. Shears isn't around anymore. So I would be feeling sad about something that isn't real and doesn't exist. And that would be stupid.

When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. However beautiful it looked, it needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable.

What I love about the theatre is that it's always metaphorical. It's like going back to being a kid again, and we're all pretending in a room. Sometimes, when the pretending really works, I find it much, much more moving than something on film.

I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.

Most murders are committed by someone who is known to the victim. In fact, you are most likely to be murdered by a member of your own family on Christmas day.

Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.