Top 51 Quotes by Mal Peet

I'm not a great reader of historical fiction; it's not my favourite genre.

Writing is a form of licensed madness.

Benches and books have things in common beyond the fact that they're generally to do with sitting. Both are forms of public privacy, intimate spaces widely shared.

I'm working with published authors and some very young undergraduates and lots of people in between. They are lovely people, and they can write.

A sentence that clots in your mouth is unlikely to flow in your mind.

When I'm working, I always read stuff that's as far away from what I'm working on as possible, so I'll read American crime fiction at bedtime, or Emily Dickinson.

Remember that a good football novel has to have the same ingredients as any other good novel: drama, convincing and interesting characters, a strong story-line, and some kind of magic in the writing.

I feel able to steal from Emily Dickinson because she's both wonderful and dead.

If I were to try to describe the way in which I write, the only word I would use without qualification is 'slowly.'

Normally, I'm a grumpy old man - whenever I read about celebrity, I start to grind my teeth and pull my hair; it seems synonymous with idiocy.