I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful.

Anything that gets children reading is fine.

Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart.

Any story you write about war, or film you make about war, is bound to be political whether you like it or not.

This one isn’t just any old horse. There’s a nobility in his eye, a regal serenity about him. Does he not personify all that men try to be and never can be? I tell you, my friend, there’s divinity in a horse, and specially in a horse like this. God got it right the day he created them. And to find a horse like this in the middle of this filthy abomination of a war, is for me like finding a butterfly on a dung heap. We don’t belong in the same universe as a creature like this.

There's a nobility in his eye, a regal serenity about him. Does he not personify all that men try to be and never can be?

What's really good is that there are people making stories and writing them and the vast majority never see the light of day and it doesn't matter a fig.