It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.

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 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.

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.

There is nothing romantic about childhood. Children can enjoy their childhood only if the adults create the necessary atmosphere.

We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading.

I didn't really sign up to be a celebrity, I only signed up to be a writer.

But I would reinvent myself if I could. As a sexy leading man! We all would like that, but I don't know how to.

Lack of education is an extraordinary handicap when one is being offensive.

On poetry: Everyone wants to know what it means. But nobody is asking, How does it feel?

According to my daughters, my most irritating habit is asking for cups of tea.

The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.

In Lebanon, it's never over for anyone. You cannot write off anyone or anything in this country.

While she was no radical, no natural breaker of rules, no seeker of the bold statement, she was in her own serene way uncaring of convention and others' opinions.