The act of copulation is like that of picking the nose. It’s all right to be doing it yourself but it is a singularly unattractive spectacle for the onlooker.

Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.

I devised a stunt for getting myself sent back home. My idea was that I should all of a sudden develop an attack of acute appendicitis.

If you are good life is good.

Truth is more important than modesty

I shot down some German planes and I got shot down myself, crashing in a burst of flames and crawling out, getting rescued by brave soldiers.

The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go...

The Bristol Channel was always my guide, and I was always able to draw an imaginary line from my bed to our house over in Wales. It was a great comfort.

Some children are spoiled and it is not their fault, it is their parents.

It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.

It is most unlikely. But–here comes the big “but”–not impossible.

I’d rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans.

It’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself

Pear Drops were exciting because they had a dangerous taste. All of us were warned against eating them, and the result was that we ate them more than ever.

The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky...

Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.

Some adults forget what it was like to be a kid,” Burton says.

…the more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. If you never let them take any risks, then I believe they become very prone to injury. Boys...

All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.

Ik heb gemerkt, juffrouw Engel, in mijn lange loopbaan in het onderwijs, dat een rotmeisje veel gevaarlijker is dan een rotjongen. Bovendien zijn ze veel moeilijker klein te krijgen. Een rotmeisje te grazen nemen is...

A whizzpopper!” cried the BFG, beaming at her. “Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time! Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears! You surely is not telling me that...

I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. I think they do it deliberately, just to annoy me.

When I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys along the way. We would set out together after school across the village green.

,Os dais cuenta cabal de la cadena de crímenes tramados por la nena? Crimen número uno: la acusada comete allanamiento de morada. Crimen número dos: el personaje se queda con tres platos de potaje. Crimen...

I go down to my little hut, where it’s tight and dark and warm, and within minutes I can go back to being six or seven or eight again.

I asked my mum, who’s a very clever psychotherapist, and she says that kids love stories about death; they need it, they need to have stories that deal with death and explain it, as a...

Words’, he said, ‘is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. So you must simply try to be patient and stop squibbling. As I am telling you before, I know exactly what...

‘Dexter’ is a very well-oiled machine; it’s just a great show and great to be part of.

I want an Oompa-Loompa!’ screamed Veruca.

Life is more fun if you play games.

You mean you live down here?’ Matilda asked.’I do’, Miss Honey replied, but she said no more.Matilda had never once stopped to think about where Miss Honey might be living. She had always regarded her...

I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.

I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile because it’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself. A mouth-smile is different....

A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.

I do not like film directors very much. They lack humility and they are too damn sure that everything they do is right. The trouble is that it’s mostly wrong. Oh, what a mess Mel...

I’m afraid men are not always quite as clever as they think they are. You will learn that when you get a bit older, my girl.

I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It’s not possible.

Sebagian besar hal seru yang kita lakukan dalam hidup ini membuat kita takut setengah mati. Hal-hal itu tidak akan seru kalau tidak menakutkan-Danny

I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.Brian Sibley: Or brains even?Oh gosh,...

Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.

All Norwegian children learn to swim when they are very young because if you can’t swim it is difficult to find a place to bathe.

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader...

When you’re writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good having people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all. Every writer...

Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children – as long as you make them laugh as well,

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

My father was a Norwegian who came from a small town near Oslo. He broke his arm at the elbow when he was 14, and they amputated it.

My darling,” she said at last, are you sure you don’t mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?””I don’t mind at all” I said.It doesn’t matter who you are or what you...

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

The fine line between roaring with laughter and crying because it’s a disaster is a very, very fine line. You see a chap slip on a banana skin in the street and you roar with...