Top 51 Quotes by Mal Peet

Although I now spend most of my time writing novels for teenagers and adults, 'readaloudability' is still a criterion I try to adhere to.

I didn't consciously make the decision to write an adult novel. I didn't think of it as my riposte to the YA genre.

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

I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

'Smart', in American usage, is slicker and sharper than 'intelligent'; faster off the mark and quicker on its feet than deep thought.

Sex and death, the magnetic poles of fiction, attract us children's writers no less than adult authors, but we have to be more leery of their pull.

I want to drink champagne from ladies' shoes.

I worry about children not having a sense of any direct connection to the past.

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

I tend to boycott all teenage reading while I'm trying to write my own stuff.