Patrick Ness

"I'd just hate for the only people to speak to be the ones who are unafraid to be the loudest. The loudest are only part of society, and often not always the part that you want to hear". Patrick Ness

Tim Winton

'I don't see optimism as an emotional state or an emotional dispensation. It's a discipline that you adopt because the alternative is despair.'' Tim Winton

Judy Blume

"Censors don’t come near you unless they know kids like your books. They’re not sitting there reading all of the books. They are waiting until they find out if kids like it first." Judy Blume

Nick Hornby

"I wouldn't call it depression. It's just a sort of strain of English miserablism, where you know everything is crap and everyone who pretends it isn't is kidding themselves. Yeah, this is the best it will ever get." Nick Hornby

Anthony Browne



"Children are more than capable of coping with all kinds of stories; it's adults who are threatened by the darkness in children's books. If we insist on telling children that everything in the garden is lovely, we're doing them a disservice." Anthony Browne

Albert Camus

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." Albert Camus

J D Salinger





"I seldom care to know a writer's birthplace, his children's names, his working schedule, the date of his arrest for smuggling guns (the gallant rogue!) during the Irish Rebellion. The writer who tells you these things is also very likely to have his picture taken wearing an open-collared shirt-and he's sure to be looking three-quarter-profile and tragic. He can also be counted on to refer to his wife as a swell gal or a grand person." J D Salinger

Aldous Huxley

"It's with bad sentiments that one makes good novels." Aldous Huxley

Vincent Kartheiser

"I was a nut for Dostoevsky." Vincent Kartheiser