Quotes by Margaret Mahy

About Margaret Mahy:

Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

It changes you for ever, but you are changing for ever anyway.

Margaret Mahy

There are always two people involved in cruelty, aren't there? One to be vicious and someone to suffer! And what's the use of getting rid of - of wickedness, say - in the outside world if you let it creep back into things from inside you?

Margaret Mahy

Somewhere int he flesh of the earth the dreadful earthquake shuddered, the tide walked to and fro on the leash of the moon, rainbows formed, winds swept the sky like giant brooms piling up clouds before them, clouds which writhed into different shape...

Margaret Mahy

Stamp, your name is to be Laura. I'm sharing my name with you. I'm putting my power into you and you must do my work. Don't listen to anyone but me. You are to be my command laid on my enemy. you'll make a hole in him through which he'll drip away un...

Margaret Mahy

For in some ways the world was like a shopping centre, and he himself was a doubtful customer, often ineffectual, being talked into buying things he didn't want, things indeed which nobody in their right mind would want to buy.

Margaret Mahy

I don't think I prefer writing for one age group above another. I am just as pleased with a story which I feel works well for very small children as I do with a story for young adults.

Margaret Mahy

Don't matter if you believe in them or not. If they're there, they're there,' Mrs. Phipps said.

Margaret Mahy

Your Barney?” Cole’s eyebrows shot up. “Yours?” “He’s mine all right!” Claire replied. “Everyone in this family belongs to everyone else – belongs with everyone else, rather. I’ve looked after him for a year now – ironed his shi...

Margaret Mahy

…But don’t be late, Troy, or I’ll…” She hesitated and laughed, not entirely happily. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever need to worry about you again, will I? I don’t suppose I’ve ever needed to worry over a magician.” “There are alwa...

Margaret Mahy

If people fainted from too much thinking I’d scarcely ever be conscious,” Tabitha began at once. “I think and think all the time, and I’ve never fainted – not once.” She looked over at Barney enviously. “Why do the best things always ha...

Margaret Mahy

When I was a child I had a best friend who lived across the road from me. When her mother died unexpectedly it was like losing a member of my own family. I think I am still affected by the memory of that loss.

Margaret Mahy

Ellis's understanding of himself and the world around him certainly develops because of his adventures, and part of that development comes through recognizing other people for what they are.

Margaret Mahy

In a way, the characters often do take over.

Margaret Mahy

Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always an enthusiastic reader. Writing and reading seem to me to be different aspects of a single imaginative act.

Margaret Mahy

At this stage I am not involved with young adults as closely as many other writers. My children are grown up and my grandchildren are still quite young.

Margaret Mahy

When you are writing, of course, you have to do all that writing and correcting for yourself. When I was a librarian it was expected that I would know about a wide range of books.

Margaret Mahy

Of course there are big differences in length and character and vocabulary, but each level has its particular pleasures when it comes to the words one can use and the way one uses them.

Margaret Mahy

The novels take longer to write than the picture book texts, and they do take a different sort of concentration. However, a very short, simple story that works well is just as exciting to me as any longer and more complex book.

Margaret Mahy

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.

Margaret Mahy

Every writer has to find their own way into writing.

Margaret Mahy

Author Bio

  • NameMargaret Mahy
  • DescriptionNew Zealand children's writer
  • BornMarch 21, 1936
  • DiedJuly 23, 2012
  • CountryNew Zealand
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist; Librarian
  • WorksThe Haunting; The Changeover
  • AwardsHans Christian Andersen Award