I used to be very fascinated by Victorian stuff, and my best known books, the Mortal Engines series, have a sort of retro, Victorian vibe, despite being set in the far future.

The one thing worse than an enemy is a friend turned false.

Sometimes, on our way through the world, we meet someone who touches our heart in a way others don't.

You aren't a hero and I'm not beautiful and we probably won't live happily ever after " she said. "But we're alive and together and we're going to be all right.

he cut through the 21st Century Gallery, past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal headed gods of lost America

I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.

Moving cities are a fairly hoary old sci-fi trope - I seem to recall they were always cropping up on Doctor Who when I was young, though I may be misremembering.

But boys will be boys, even the ones who are only girls dressed up: That's one of the rules of the world.

Godshawk looked surprised, the way that people generally do when you ask them philosophical questions in shrubberies in the middle of the night.

Is it...dead?" asked Tom, his voice all quivery with fright. "A town just ran over him," said Hester. "I shouldn't think he's very well.

But we're alive, and together, and we're going to be all right.

You're the one who says books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them...

Intelligence is not expecting people to understand what your intent is

I look in the mirror and say to myself, Can it be you once played Romeo?

Our sense of safety depends on predictability, so anything living outside the usual rules we suspect to be an outlaw, a ghoul.

Any comedic entertainment is better when you get high.

It's not the nineteenth century; I'm not meant to be judged on how good a housekeeper I am. Getting down on the floor with a lemon and a bucket of vinegar does not make me a better person.

Music is a permanent art, it will always go through phases where you like it and are in tune with it, but saying that music "got bad" is infantile. The same is true with your life.

Life is a struggle with things to maintain itself among them. Concepts are the strategic plan we form in answer to the attack.

There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears.

Dating or finding someone is the last thing on my mind.