“A little magic can take you a long way.”

The reason I collect good ideas is because plots themselves are very difficult indeed to come by.

Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children – as long as you make them laugh as well.

We all have our moments of brilliance and glory.

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.

Don’t gobblefunk around with words.

The prime function of the children’s book writer is to write a book that is so absorbing, exciting, funny, fast and beautiful that the child will fall in love with it.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.

Writing is mainly perspiration, not inspiration.

Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.

I’ve always said to myself that if a little pocket calculator can do it why shouldn’t I?

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it

But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

What a fortunate fellow I am, I kept telling myself. Nobody has ever had such a lovely time as this!

Some children are spoiled and it is not their fault, it is their parents.

To shipbrokers, coal was black gold.

The more risks you allow your children to make, the better they learn to look after themselves.

Don’t read success stories, you will only get a message. Read failure stories, you will get some ideas to get success.

To launch a business means successfully solving problems. Solving problems means listening.

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.

Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a story that goes along with it. It just depends on what your passion is.

I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match our future.

You’ll never achieve 100 percent if 99 percent is okay.

We don’t get paid for being busy, we get paid for being right.

It doesn’t matter if I failed. At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don’t succeed, someone will succeed.