I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.

I hope in my books I help children to see their strengths, and show them I have some idea of what they may occasionally be going through. Especially at tricky moments when it is easier to go back and evade things rather than go forwards and confront them.

I was born in a small suburb of Ilford in a rather nasty housing estate that my mother despised. She had grown up in the country, so when the war came and I was evacuated to Wales she thought I was much better off there.

People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education.

Children often have a much stronger concept of morality than adults.

All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.