Those single-track military minds never think to ask their cleaning staff for help in giant lethal marauding creature matters.

The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you've done a story justice, you're in the wrong business.

When they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship.

Because she was a princess she had a pegasus.

The story is always better than your ability to write it.

I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you.

There are things you don't want to know you can do

My capacity for invention is flash hot stark, I thought. Sucker sunshade. Disembodied radar-reconnaissance. Not to mention Bitter Chocolate Death and Killer Zebras. Pity about the rest of me.

Perhaps it is a human thing, to look upon such beauty and fail to encompass it.

[Harry] had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child.

It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered.

A good friend is a balm for the heart.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.

Russia is the only country of the world you can be homesick for while you're still in it.

When a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there's a massive sense of accomplishment.

I have never tried to fiddle my role as leader of the city of Sheffield, as an MP or as a minister.

Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.

There are going to be people doing the talking and people who get talked about, choose, which one do you want to be?

As a five-year-old in Berlin in 1965, I didn't know that funny women existed. It wasn't until I got back to England that I realised women could be funny.

If Jesus was here, do you think Jesus would show me any love? Do you think Jesus would love me?

I'm not going to die. If I'm going to die, it won't be now. So, I'm not going to limit myself. I will keep on going while I have the strength.