After being rejected for years, I found a publisher for 'Keeper,' and it won prizes, and then I had to write a second and a third book because I kept taking the money and spending it.

I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

If I were to try to describe the way in which I write, the only word I would use without qualification is 'slowly.'

Fundamentalism - of any variety - is a form of illiteracy, in that it asserts that it is necessary to read only one book.

I tend to boycott all teenage reading while I'm trying to write my own stuff.

I was taking my first uncertain steps towards writing for children when my own were young. Reading aloud to them taught me a great deal when I had a great deal to learn. It taught me elementary things about rhythm and pace, the necessary musicality of text.