Gillian Cross

“….This time she did not feel a thing when the Headmaster stuck the pin into her arm.”

“I'm incurably nosey - so naturally I'm a great reader.”

“Non-fiction books have helped me enormously with lots of my books.”

“Refugees come from many different backgrounds and live in many different circumstances, so I wouldn't like to generalise. But I think refugees from the U.K. would probably be healthier and better fed than those from many other countries.”

“If fiction changes things, it's usually because it's a powerful way of exploring social issues. And it helps us to understand people who are different from us.”

“The man who can keep order can rule the world, but the man who can bear disorder is truly free.”

“One of the fantastic things about books, fiction or non-fiction, is the way they give you a chance to look into different lives.”

“The older I get, the more my curiosity grows, and every book I write is a new exploration.”

“Fiction is often most powerful when the author is exploring an issue - and not writing like a know-it-all who has the perfect answer.”

“I write because I have always been curious about what it would feel like to be someone else, in a different situation. Fiction is a wonderful way of exploring that.”