There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be.

It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself

Give us strength, oh Lord, to let our children starve.

Life is more fun if you play games.

When you're writing a book, it's rather like going on a very long walk, across valleys and mountains and things [...] The highest mountain on the walk is obviously the end of the book, because it's got to be the best view of all, when everything comes together and you can look back and see that everything you've done all ties up. But it's a very, very long, slow process.

By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.

Had I not had children of my own, I would have never written books for children, nor would I have been capable of doing so.