At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks. Mark Haddon Read Quote
For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people. Mark Haddon Read Quote
The most difficult book I wrote was the fourth in a series of linked children’s books. It was like pulling teeth because the publisher wanted exactly the same but completely different. I’d much rather just do something completely different, even if there’s a risk of it going wrong. Mark Haddon Read Quote
If you’re trying to be a successful writer, and you go into a second-hand bookshop, it’s the graveyard of people whose books haven’t been wanted. Mark Haddon Read Quote
I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I’d never be an astronaut. Mark Haddon Read Quote
Things can be funny when people are uneasy. It softens them up and stops them falling asleep on the sofa. I like those moments where people half-smile and half-wince. Mark Haddon Read Quote
When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. It needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable. Mark Haddon Read Quote
Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn’t even know existed. Mark Haddon Read Quote
