“(on teaching writing) So many writers come to class with one question dominant in their mind, 'How do I make a living from this?' It's a fair enough question and one I always try to answer well - b...”

“Write what is important to you, regardless of fashion or marketability or anything like that all those things are so far out of your control that you may as well not think about them. Of course, t...”

“When we’ve decided to tell the truth in a story, we should tell good, strong versions of it, proper versions that kids can do something with.”

“She may not be like everyone else, but neither am I.”

“Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.”

“She asked where he lived. Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning.”

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”