Author

What I value in books is lucidity. I want the language to be rich; I love lexical fireworks on the page, but I have to know what it means. I want to be surprised and delighted, not merely baffled.

From Mal Peet

I see genres as generating sets of rules or conventions that are only interesting when they are subverted or used to disguise the author's intent. My own way of doing this is to attempt a sort of whimsical alchemy, whereby seemingly incompatible genres are brought into unlikely partnerships.

From Mal Peet

History is the heavy traffic that prevents us from crossing the road. We wait, more or less patiently, for it to pause, so that we can get to the liquor store or the laundromat or the burger bar.

From Mal Peet

I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

From Mal Peet

Normally, I'm a grumpy old man - whenever I read about celebrity, I start to grind my teeth and pull my hair; it seems synonymous with idiocy.

From Mal Peet

Disconnection or alienation from the past has political consequences.

From Mal Peet

I want to drink champagne from ladies' shoes.

From Mal Peet

I have kind of a personality defect in that I find the word 'no' hard to articulate.

From Mal Peet

If I were to try to describe the way in which I write, the only word I would use without qualification is 'slowly.'

From Mal Peet

Remember that a good football novel has to have the same ingredients as any other good novel: drama, convincing and interesting characters, a strong story-line, and some kind of magic in the writing.

From Mal Peet

Mal Peet

Notable Quotes

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