I collect the walks of my life. Some people have asked me if I have walked so very far to merit such an activity, but I say to them, it’s not about how far you have walked, but how thoroughly.

Adults, I understand, have many faults, they are not perfect – even though they have lived longer, even though they offer themselves as examples to children. They are larger, that is certain, and size has an unearned authority. But they are easily influenced, and they can be easily swayed.

Part of the joy of writing for kids is that you have to have a real adventure story. You can get really involved in the fantastic in a way that perhaps you can't so much in adult fiction.

I inhaled Dickens as a kid, and I've always been fascinated by the Victorians. So many ridiculous objects they had! They created things like mustache cups, so you wouldn't wet your mustache when you were drinking tea. And eyebrow combs. What's happened to all the eyebrow combs? Marvelous things.

I had a very happy childhood. But I was sent off to boarding school at quite a young age, this massive Victorian house that was suffocated in ivy. I think there is a part of that school in 'Heap House.'

Fairy tales, before they were sanitized, were very dark, and kids love that. 'Coraline' by Neil Gaiman feels like Beckett for kids. I think there's plenty of room for that. And I think there's a danger of being too patronizing to children, having things too sanitized.

An ideal reader is someone who doesn't know what on Earth you've been doing, who will look at it with absolute freshness and go, 'Oh, so that's what you've been up to.'

I was sent to Naval School when I was young, and it didn't do me any good in any other form, but it made me get up in the morning.

Every new writing project, every new artistic project, needs to be protected so it can grow on its own before it begins to creep out into the world.

«Ma come hai fatto capirlo, Clod?» si erano stupiti i miei parenti. «Come hai fatto a capire che la spilla da balia era lì?»«L’ho sentita gridare,» avevo risposto.