Not every child takes instantly to books like a duck to water, but I don’t believe there are children who hate books. There are just children who haven’t yet found the right books for them.

As ever, Morpurgo's warmth and humanity suffuse a story of courage, love and hope.

Familiarity breeds sentiment before contempt.

Every profession is an island whose inhabitants earn a precarious living by taking in each other’s washing.

Mostly, what people mean by love is laziness.

There was a certain usefulness in having a husband whom most people could barely tolerate: it deflected envy, for one thing.

It’s all biology. If it weren’t for two thousand years of the Christian tradition we wouldn’t think of pretending otherwise…Romance is the true opiate of the masses.

Some people, perhaps those with more dignity and less rage gnawing at the roots of their being, are nicer as failures, For me, it was like descending a deep pit that had no bottom

That is the worst thing about despair: it is not constant, any more than love is.

Very happy or unhappy, people disappear.

You know the only rule you need to know to get on in this country? ‘Never complain, never explain.

Always grateful, forever blessed.

I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.

Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are.

If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

I guess heaven needed a shortstop.

I've just been watching other people's releases and learning from their mistakes. I know I'm bound to make a couple of my own, but I've got a couple ideas that I think are going to help get it out.

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love.

I have always believed that there is no point in having regrets as you learn far more from mistakes than successes. Embrace a mistake and learn from it; don't regret them.

Let us kill all lawyers