Don’t gobblefunk around with words.
Then suddenly, he was struck by a powerful but simple little truth, and it was this: that English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness!
If you are good, life is good.
It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.
It is most unlikely. But – here comes the big “but” – not impossible.
For me, the pleasure of writing comes with inventing stories.
I’m wondering what to read next.
If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
When I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys along the way. We would set out together after school across the village green.
If my books can help children become readers then I feel I have accomplished something important.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly.
Writing is mainly perspiration, not inspiration.
You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.
Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It’s made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!
The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.
In any event, parents never underestimated the abilities of their own children. Quite the reverse. Sometimes it was well nigh impossible for a teacher to convince the proud father or mother that their beloved offspring was a complete nitwit.
To shipbrokers, coal was black gold.
Titchy little snapperwhippers like you should not be higgling around with an old sage and onions who is hundreds of years more than you.