I read very, very little fiction as a kid. All the books I can remember are junior science books. Mark Haddon More Quotes by Mark Haddon More Quotes From Mark Haddon Then he asked if I didn’t like things changing. And I said I wouldn’t mind things changing if I became an astronaut, for example, which is one of the biggest changes you can imagine, apart from becoming a girl or dying. Mark Haddon girldyingmind Stories about mental aberration and oddity only make sense in context. Just how do people live with someone who is peculiar, gifted, strange or alien? It's odd because there's a little part of me that wants to write about exotic, strange bizarre subjects. Instead, I've rather reluctantly realised that what I write about is families. Mark Haddon odditieswritingpeople 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 riskbookchildren The secret of contentment lay in ignoring many things completely. Mark Haddon layscontentmentsecret I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I'd never be an astronaut. Mark Haddon lazyeyetoo-late I think the U.K. is too small to write about from within it and still make it seem foreign and exotic and interesting. Mark Haddon writingtravelthinking Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky. Mark Haddon sailingstarssky I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people. Mark Haddon characterpeoplethinking I think I've learnt that there is no character so strange that you haven't shared their experience in some small way. Mark Haddon characterwaythinking I think good books have to make a few people angry. Mark Haddon bookpeoplethinking If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up. Mark Haddon doewritingbook If kids like a picture book, they're going to read it at least 50 times. Read anything that often, and even minor imperfections start to feel like gravel in the bed. Mark Haddon imperfectionkidsbook From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness. Mark Haddon takendarknessbook If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance. Mark Haddon chancemathwriting 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 jobschildrenfiction With English literature, if you do a bit of shonky spelling, no one dies, but if you're half-way through a maths calculation and you stick in an extra zero, everything just crashes into the ravine. Mark Haddon zerohalfmath Appalling things can happen to children. And even a happy childhood is filled with sadnesses. Mark Haddon childhoodsadnesschildren When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. However beautiful it looked, it needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable. Mark Haddon writingchildrenfiction As a kid, I didn't read a great deal of fiction, and I've forgotten most of what I did read. Mark Haddon forgottenkidsfiction Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene. Mark Haddon readingselfchildren
