My daughter, Anna, is almost 15, and my son, Ben, is almost 10.

There are not so many mythical creatures from Inkheart.

The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.

believe me. Sometimes when life looks to be at its grimmest, there's a light hidden at the heart of things. Clive Barker, Abarat

Second, there are so many magical places in books that you cant go to, like Hogwarts and Middle Earth, so I wanted to set a story in a place where children can actually go.

A library book, I imagine, is a happy book.

You know what they say: When people start burning books they'll soon burn human beings.

Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them.

I have two Iceland horses, a very hairy dog called Looney, and a guinea pig.

Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?

If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids.

Conquering hills today prepares you for conquering mountains tomorrow.

I know how it feels when people look right through you, or worse, see you as something or someone other than what you are.

The true extent of one's discipline is revealed when motivation runs out

If you're stuck you could always double up with me at my place. It's the size of a postage stamp, but the roses are the size of poodles. So it sort of evens out." -Austin

I have always loved 'Stig of the Dump.' I think reading that book made me officially realise that I was a reader.

I put myself and all the members of Congress in the same boat of things that could have been done better.

I love to cook so much. I like to cook everything. I really like to eat my food.

Keep your brain active. Engage your brain. Your brain is the most fantastic machine ever created, and it needs to be exercised.

The meek may inherit the earth, but they don't get in to Harvard.

I must make a choice every time I speak a sentence in English. I try to choose the happier way of saying things, so that my own words will not weigh me down like stones.