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" I'm not sure I can write about America for the same reason I'm not sure I can write about adults - I have no critical distance on either place. "

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" Self-knowledge is essential not only to writing, but to doing almost anything really well. It allows you to work through from a deep place - from the deep, dark corners of your subconscious mind. "

" In my experience, adults rarely bother reading the reviews of children's books and almost never read the books themselves - particularly if they don't have children. "

" I have never written out of a desire to be controversial. "

" I, a late riser, fantasise about getting up every morning at 5 A.M. to fetch the horses in from the fields. "

" I can actually trace the moment I decided I couldn't be a doctor. It was in biology, they brought in these African crickets and we were supposed to dissect them - but there's no way I was touching those bugs. "

" I think most people struggle over a matter of years to find a satisfying way to live. "

" The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever you're trying to tell them. "

" I think the bravest thing to write about is nothing, just to write a book in which nothing happens. "

" I loved horses and horse books as a child. "

" My younger sister Debby had died of cancer, which started me writing - the sense of life being short. Cancer focuses your mind. "

" I've been fired five times for having a bad attitude. "

" I know from experience that careers do not always arise from a deep sense of destiny. "

" Life is absolutely horrific, leading up to absolute horror. "

" My daughter is a fantastic travelling companion - she's totally organised, whereas I'm hopeless. "

" Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. "

" I always think plot is what you fall back on if you can't write, to keep things going. "

" I'm constantly snatching my books out of the hands of precocious ten-year-olds who are simply too young to read them, despite parents insisting that dear Octavia has a reading age of 28. I remember trying to read 'In Cold Blood' at the age of twelve, and realising that just because you can read book doesn't mean you should. "

" Although I've lived in England for more than twenty years, I still have a foreigner's passion for all the details of English history and rural life. "

" I'd like to think life has improved since 1850, despite the long hours we all seem to spend slaving over hot computers, but the psychological journeys remain the same - the search for love, identity, a meaningful place in the world. "

" My husband is my most valuable resource. "

" It's hard recommending books for kids, and a huge responsibility. If you get it wrong, they don't tell you they hate that particular book, they tell you they hate reading. "

" People talk about writing convincing teenagers like it's a really clever thing to do, but it comes incredibly naturally to me. Which, of course, is slightly a worry. "

" The more you live, the better writer you are. "

" Contrary to popular belief, editors and agents are gagging for good books. "

" I lived in New York for 10 years, and every New Yorker sees a shrink. "

" The thing about adolescence is that you are emerging from a state of obscurity. You are coming out into the world from your family. Your family can seem normal because it is your family and all you know, but in fact it is a mess. "

" As a person with the retentive mental capacity of a goldfish and a dislike of repetition, I frequently make use of the thesaurus built into my Microsoft Word U.K. Software. "

" One of the more interesting things I've learnt since becoming a writer is that if you like the book, you'll generally like the person. It doesn't always work in reverse - there are huge numbers of lovely people out there writing not very good books. "

" Every day a piano doesn't fall on my head is good luck. "

" I am quite a cheerful, dark person. On the outside, I'm optimistic but I expect the worst to happen. "