A. S. Byatt World Quotations

I know that part of the reason I read Tolkien when I'm ill is that there is an almost total absence of sexuality in his world, which is restful.

I acquired a hunger for fairy tales in the dark days of blackout and blitz in the Second World War.

In our world of sleek flesh and collagen, Botox and liposuction, what we most fear is the dissolution of the body-mind, the death of the brain.

The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.

You can understand a lot about yourself by working out which fairytale you use to present your world to yourself in.

Louis de Bernires is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh. . .he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste.

You know, it's a truism that writers for children must still be children themselves, deep down, must still feel childish feelings, and a child's surprise at the world.