You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just let's you get on with it.

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.

The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.

Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.

I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.

Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.

It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind.

Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.

If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.

I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.

When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.

Believe in yourself, keep a can-do approach, struggle hard and watch success follow.

I fed my yak on my spare Cadbury chocolate 21, 0000ft up Everest. It was a blonde, very sweet female yak. I made it my pet after that.

I just always had a love for television and movies.

I see my buildings as pieces of cities, and in my designs I try to make them into responsible and contributing citizens.

Young people need their own private places which mothers don't belong to, even if they want mother all around the edge of that.

After I convinced them that I was a harmless novelist, I actually got them to give me a tour of the harem - which is usually off limits for tourists.

Maybe they notice me wincing whenever I hear them say it, but I don't know: there are all sorts of reasons I could be wincing. Life is a wince-a-thon.

There's a lot of Democrats, myself included, who have supported right-to-life.

In Greece we're too poor to go to psychiatrists -- we have friends instead.

In nearly every case, trying to lead everyone results in leading no one in particular.