I don't think I'm essentially interested in children's books. I'm interested in writing, and in pictures. I'm interested in people and in children because they are people.
One of the biggest motivations for me with writing my books is to offer girls some escapism, especially girls who really need it, like I did.
I don't write that much horror. People tell me my books are scary, but they're not really; I don't go there.
Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.
Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.
Sometimes you walk out of an audition and you kind of know you nailed it and you're probably going to book it, but you very rarely are told in the room by the people who are hiring you.
Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it...
There are countless reasons for reading, but when you’re young and uncertain of your identity, of who you may be, one of the most compelling is the quest to discover yourself reflected in the pages of a book.
It's all about people. It's about networking and being nice to people and not burning any bridges. Your book is going to impress, but in the end it is people that are going to hire you.
Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist.
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.
If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.
The one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes. You've got to entertain them.
I will say that comic books are not the easiest things to translate to film, number one. Even the most well meaning of filmmakers find what's acceptable on the printed page is very difficult to bring to film.
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.
I believe there is a hero in each of us. The best books are the ones that remind us of who we already are and empower us to embrace our own story.
'Harry Potter' achieved a very special act of actual magic: it made it completely acceptable for an adult to carry around, read and enjoy a children's book.
Many writers make the mistake of making their readers appear like Lazarus, without any iota of care, throwing down books to readers to crunch as if they are dogs.
Yeah, because I think it's more important just to inspire people to wake up one day and pick up a book and start feeling it out for themselves.
Make today the day you begin that awesome idea you have had for years. Now go, write this book, and remember that today is an important day in history.
There's something called the 'Washington Read,' which is the habit of many locals to go into a bookstore, pull a book off the shelf, rifle through the index to see if they're in there.
