“The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman.”

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.

But it is impossible to replace a person one has loved to distraction.

And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.

Life is more fun if you play games.

I doubt I would have written a line, unless some minor tragedy had sort of twisted my mind out of the normal rut.

When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is sparky.

The snozberries taste like snozberries!

Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.

A little magic can take you a long way.

When I first thought about writing the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I never originally meant to have children in it at all!

There is no place I know that compares to pure imagination.

We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.

Sex is like nose picking. It’s fine as long as you practice it yourself, but it’s disgusting watching someone else doing it.

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile because it’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself.

There is absolutely no reason for being rushed along with the rush. Everybody should be free to go slow.

It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

I would absolutely characterize myself as ambitious.

If absolute truth belongs to anyone in this world, it certainly does not belong to the man or party that claims to possess it.

It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.

One thing you gotta know about me is I have absolutely no filter. I have no problem saying what the hell I think of someone.