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In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

When I began writing that I was able and did travel and met some fascinating people and also uncovered some history, which has not been discovered before.

Great storytellers in the past would go to an unknown land and return to tell the stories they've found. Those were also journeys into their inner psyches and that's still true today. An actor, a writer, does that as if saying, 'Here's what I've discovered about myself and about the world I'm in. I would like to share this with you.'

When I started writing and illustrating, I knew little of classic children's literature. My stories came from real life, from my concerns about what was happening in the world.

I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist, but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.

There are so many stories to be told, by so many good writers.

God gets the great stories. Novelists must make do with more mundane fictions.

My history writing was based on what I saw in strange, exotic places rather than just reading books.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

From a very young age, stories fuelled my imagination in the most wonderful way.