I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.

I am not a victim. I am an angry survivor.

All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.

All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.

One good reason for writing novels based on your life is that you have something to read in old age when you've forgotten what happened.

A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.

People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that.

I met Richard Burton, an RAF cadet on a two-term course. I would have flirted more enthusiastically if it had not been for the horrid boils on the back of his neck.

I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

I dislike the word 'victim.' I dislike being told that I 'lost' my husband - as if I had idly abandoned you by the side of the railway track like an unwanted pair of old shoes.

I wanted to be a war reporter - scrabbling around, exposing things. I didn't want to go to university, I wanted to get a job, but Auntie Beryl said I should go to Oxford.

The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.

Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards as he was rather pious.

Oh you know me. I have no emotions. I'm a robot. Or a nun. A robot nun.

People tend to think of overweight and obesity as strictly a personal matter, but there is much that communities can and should do to address these problems.

To believe in Christ is to give your heart to Christ, which means not to affirm things about Christ, but it's like what you mean when you say, "I believe in my friend."

Yay Condi Rice. I want her to go to Saudi Arabia, and I want her first words upon getting off the plane to be 'I'll drive.'

People can be so heartless and dirty.

I don't think it's a very nice idea [making biopic] at all. I don't think my life is that interesting.

Environmental challenges have the power to deny equality of opportunity and hold back the progress of communities.

Work hard and believe in yourself even when nobody else believes in you.