For a moment he thought she was about to hit him, which would have been bad, or even start crying, which would have been much, much worse.

Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.

She didn't have a daddy?" I asked. "No." "Did you have a daddy?" "You're all questions, aren't you? No, love. We never went in for that sort of thing. You only need men if you want to breed more men.

Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.

The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

Writing imaginative tales for the young is like sending coals to Newcastle. For coals.

Notoriety wasn't as good as fame, but was heaps better than obscurity.