I never get any protests from children. All you get are giggles of mirth and squirms of delight. I know what children like.

Bunkum and tummyrot! You'll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he'd said 'What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?' He wouldn't even have started.

A life is made up of a great number of small incidents, and a small number of great ones.

...there are no secrets unless you keep them to yourself, and this was the greatest secret I had ever had to keep in my life so far.

...the more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. If you never let them take any risks, then I believe they become very prone to injury. Boys should be allowed to climb tall trees and walk along the tops of high walls and dive into the sea from high rocks... The same with girls. I like the type of child who takes risks. Better by far than the one who never does so.

The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.

When I first thought about writing the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I never originally meant to have children in it at all!