I am a huge fan of 'Doctor Who.'

I'm terribly attention-seeking. It's very different once you get all this attention, though. Because then you want to control it. And you can't exactly.

I was quite fat as a kid. And swimming is a sport you can enjoy whatever size you are. If you're fat, running is a pain. I'm not really built for running.

All you can do in this life is follow your dreams. Otherwise you're just wasting your time.

A bully can only make you feel bad about yourself if you let them.

I thrive off the company of others, I love being sociable.

I was the kind of person who got bullied and loved the attention of it.

I've just swum the length of the Thames. I feel quite tired.

People think writing a children's book is something you could do in an afternoon but it's actually really hard.

I was depressed as a child. I found it hard to make friends. My favourite thing was locking myself in the bathroom and practising comedy routines.

Children's books are often seen as the poor relation of literature. But children are just as demanding as adult readers, if not more so. I should know. I'm a children's writer myself.

The most important thing to me is the friends that I've made.

There's an incredible fascination for that and that goes with violence and everything else in pictures.

I enjoy irritating the people who enjoy being irritated.

I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.

Especially when you play at home, you need a good atmosphere behind you.

The desire for transcendence is intimately connected with the desire for creativity. It is just as essential to who and what we are.

I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it.

The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.

Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts.