Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful.

The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it.

I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans.

... and when he put his mind to it, he could make his words coil themselves around and around the listener until they held her in some sort of a mild hypnotic spell.

A little magic can take you a long way.

Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable.

And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.