Stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions..

It's the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom..

Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children..

Theatre can transform a child's life, just as an early cultural experience whether with opera, ballet, music or art is a wonderful thing because it o….

Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers.

Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times..

Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, b….

I'm still not sure I want to be a writer. I think of myself as a storyteller more..

One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But wh….

Anything that gets children reading is fine..

Read a lot - poems, prose, stories, newspapers, anything. Read books and poems that you think you will like and some that you think might not be for ….

By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I'm talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren..

That's what sailing is, a dance, and your partner is the sea. And with the sea you never take liberties. You ask her, you don't tell her. You have to….

Wars become history all too soon and are forgotten all too soon as well, before the lessons can be learned..

I think people are more in contact now with the consequences of war than they've been for a very long time. And that's what amazes me when sometimes ….

Access to books and the encouragement of the habit of reading: these two things are the first and most necessary steps in education and librarians, t….

We all know that the great memories of our childhood are the little triumphs - it doesn't really matter whether that was in writing, art, on the hock….

Any problem can be solved between people if only they can trust each other.

I don't know, but I do think that everyone has a story to tell. The question is, can they find the voice and the confidence to tell it? We lack the e….

Genuinely good people are like that. The sun shines out of them. They warm you right through..

I write fiction. I make things up, it's what I do..