Malorie Blackman

“I believe each individual can have a say and make a difference.”

“And round and round and round. Why couldn't I get past the letter? Like poison id had seeped into every image and every memory I kept of Callum, polluting them until I couldn't tell which was real and what was just wishful thinking any more. Until at last, I was forced to face the inescapable fact that, for whatever reason, Callum had written the letter.”

“I remember being in a history lesson and saying to my teacher, 'How come you never talk about black scientists and inventors and pioneers?' And she looked at me and said, 'Because there aren't any.'”

“The worst thing about being the laureate has been the attitude of a tiny minority of adults who haven't liked some of the things I'm supposed to have said and who have used it as an opportunity to be verbally abusive and nasty, but I haven't let it rule my world!”

“History should belong to all of us, and it needs to include people from different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, it risks becoming irrelevant to children, who could then become disenchanted with education.”

“If a child wants to read 'Twilight' over Middlemarch, they should be encouraged - the important thing is to get them reading in the first place.”

“The best thing about being Children's Laureate has definitely been all the children and teens I've met.”

“When life knocks you down, keep getting up.”

“A good book is a good book. End of story.”

“Life isn't about quantity, it's about quality.”

“I work in my attic, and the view is next door's chimney stack.”

“I have encountered those who feel that libraries have served their purpose and are no longer needed. There are those who consider them a soft target when it comes to local authority budget cuts. In certain political quarters, there is a refusal to see that our public library service needs active protection.”

“Being the Children's Laureate has been educational, sometimes hectic, but most of all, great fun.”

“He wrapped his arms around me. We were cuddled up like a couple of spoons in a cutlery drawer.”

“I try to widen the horizons of every child I meet, and part of that is promoting diverse forms, be it graphic novels, stories told in a narrative voice, or more translated books, as well as more diverse writers and more diverse characters.”

“Children will go with any story as long as it's good, but white adults sometimes think that if a black child's on the cover, it is perhaps not for them.”

“What I would like to do is make sure every primary school child has a library card, so where parents don't get their children library cards, we'll see if we can get schools to step in and make sure that every child has one.”

“Books teach children to see the world through the eyes of others and empathise with others. It's about the story.”

“That just the way it is. Some things will never change. That's just the way it is. But don't you believe them.”

“A love of books has opened so many doors for me. Stories have inspired me and taught me to aspire.”