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

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.

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.

Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted

Conservatism is a hard choice for a society that has become accustomed to big government and big entitlements promoted by liberals.

Truths may clash without contradicting each other.

It's hard to explain why I like Europe so much.

There are many satisfactions in public architecture but one of the greatest is the moment when you unveil a project and suddenly a group of adults

We're trying to teach artists that if you're smart enough to develop the material, then you're smart enough to market and promote the album too.

They make glorious shipwreck who are lost in seeking worlds.

The awful thing about life is this: everyone has their reasons.

Gold can gild a rotten stick, and dirt sully an ingot.

You," Said Dr. Yavitch, "are a middle-road liberal, and you haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want -- and what I want now is a drink.