That's what this war is all about, my friend. It's about which of us is the crazier.And clearly you British have an advantage.You were crazy beforehand.

Our great problem, is that children now know whatever they want to know - at the press of a button they can discover all horrors of the adult world. They know very early on that the world is sometimes a very dark, difficult and complex place, and the literature they read must reflect that. Otherwise we're just entertaining them to pass the time.

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

But try as I might, I never got to eat any of her pastries, and do you know, she never even offered me one.

Genuinely good people are like that. The sun shines out of them. They warm you right through.

A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion.

We're much alike, bee, you and me," I said. "You may carry your pack underneath you and your rifle may stick out of your bottom. But you and me, bee, are much alike.