The real world has no obligation to be convincing, so it throws up some very weird moments sometimes.

It is going to take more than just a couple of good-hearted souls to raise this child. It will take a graveyard.

She was witchy, yes, and in charge of a cauldron roiling with ideas and stories, but she always gave the impression that the stories, the ones she wrote and wrote so very well and so wisely, had simply happened, and that all she had done was to hold the pen. (On Diana Wynne Jones)

What would be the fun in doing things you know are going to work?

The cartoon me writes the books cartoon people read in the cartoon world, because they need things to read there too.

It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.