Eschew all those beastly adjectives.

I am suspicious of both facility and speed.

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.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

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.

If my books can help children become readers then I feel I have accomplished something important.

You can write about anything for children as long as you've got humour.