People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education.

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.

Everyone has greatness in them! To bring it out, we just have to empower them.

When it comes to cats and the people who love them, Des is respectful of the bond, even when it reaches a level most would call obsession.

It's not easy being a father, but I've been allowed a comeback.

No matter how old we get, life's always got a lesson for you. Most likely one you've learned ten times before.

Whether you want to or not, you do serve as a role model. People will always put more faith in baseball players than anyone else.

London 2012 is all about winning a medal. Not just any medal, the gold medal.

I love my family in Baltimore. But on their side of the family, I love their cousin Charles Thompson, because he's from New York like me.

I toyed with the idea of playing Ravel's 'Pavane pour une infante defunte' but I couldn't remember if it's a tune or Latin prescription for piles.

Music makes the people come together.

The haters can just keep hating but I'm certainly not stopping because of them. But I can't say it doesn't hurt. It hurts a great deal. It hurts very much.