"In the fairy tale the painting represents the here and now. The book is actually divided into five sections, through which the key character, the muse, leads us"

"Years teach us more than books"

"I sort of try to read the books when they come out impartially and not make up my mind, but the fact is when I was reading the sixth, 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince', there were bits in there where I was going, 'God, I would love to do that because it's so good'"

"Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space"

"When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language"

"It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book"

"Never loan a book to someone if you expect to get it back. Loaning books is the same as giving them away"

"The impulse to dream was slowly beaten out of me by experience. Now it surged up again and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing"

"I remember once I read a book on mental illness and there was a nurse that had gotten sick. Do you know what she died from? From worrying about the mental patients not being able to get their food. She became a mental patient"

"I always wanted to go to the Chavez school but I could never afford it when I was growing up so a lot of my learning came from magic books and watching other magicians. I was also very lucky that I had a couple of really good magic teachers"

"I have written about 10 books, all just practical encouragement for moms"