"I am quite a cheerful, dark person. On the outside, I'm optimistic but I expect the worst to happen." — Meg Rosoff

In my experience, adults rarely bother reading the reviews of children's books and almost never read the books themselves - particularly if they don't have children.

My younger sister Debby had died of cancer, which started me writing - the sense of life being short. Cancer focuses your mind.

When I was at university, there was such a strong delineation between city kids and those who had grown up the suburbs. City kids were so at home in the world, in a way that suburban kids take years to catch up, if indeed they ever can.

I lived in New York for 10 years, and every New Yorker sees a shrink.