Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.

And then Serafina understood something for which the witches had no word: it was the idea of pilgrimage. She understood why these beings would wait for thousands of years and travel vast distances in order to be close to something important, and how they would feel differently for the rest of time, having been briefly in its presence. That was how these creatures looked now, these beautiful pilgrims of rarefied light, standing around the girl with the dirty-face and the tartan skirt and the boy with the wounded hand who was frowning in his sleep.

We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.

When it comes to telling children stories, they don’t need simple language. They need beautiful language.

What I couldn't help noticing was that I learned more about the novel in a morning by trying to write a page of one than I'd learned in seven years or so of trying to write criticism

The e-book revolution has made it very easy to pay writers a good deal less than what their work is worth. I do strongly believe that we writers ought to hold out for much better royalties.

It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.