Margaret Mahy

In a way, the characters often do take over.

— Margaret Mahy

When you are writing, of course, you have to do all that writing and correcting for yourself. When I was a librarian…

— Margaret Mahy

“All right," said Eden. "After all, we've got to hide somewhere. And even if they move on a bit faster than we…

— Margaret Mahy

a man who builds a house never really dies.

— Margaret Mahy

Anyone interested in the world generally can't help being interested in young adult culture - in the music, the bands, the books,…

— Margaret Mahy

“I don't know everything I feel, but I do know this. You mustn't ever want anyone but me, Big Science. If you…

— Margaret Mahy

I, personally, have found reading a continual support to writing.

— Margaret Mahy

“Stamp, your name is to be Laura. I'm sharing my name with you. I'm putting my power into you and you must…

— Margaret Mahy

Reading is very creative - it's not just a passive thing. I write a story; it goes out into the world; somebody…

— Margaret Mahy

“Fattening!” said Troy, looking at Tabitha’s round face and plump arms. “If I don’t mind being fat, I don’t see why other…

— Margaret Mahy

Ellis's understanding of himself and the world around him certainly develops because of his adventures, and part of that development comes through…

— Margaret Mahy

Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always…

— Margaret Mahy

It can certainly happen that characters in more sophisticated stories can ake over as they develop and change the author's original ideas.…

— Margaret Mahy

I was able to work out all sorts of attitudes to style and event and character, all of which affected the way…

— Margaret Mahy

“These were true things, Laura knew, but they were only part of the truth which was something less orderly than Kate made…

— Margaret Mahy

By the time ordinary life asserted itself once more, I would feel I had already lived for a while in some other…

— Margaret Mahy

I once knew a house rather like The Land of Smiles - an old house occupied by a varied collection of young…

— Margaret Mahy

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing twice.

— Margaret Mahy

My theory is that I decided to be a writer when I was about seven, but of course it is not as…

— Margaret Mahy

“She wanted everyone kind and affectionate, not passionate and tormenting – everything open, no maggoty secrets and silences, and no arguments with…

— Margaret Mahy

“Somewhere int he flesh of the earth the dreadful earthquake shuddered, the tide walked to and fro on the leash of the…

— Margaret Mahy

“Practise make it perfect!”

— Margaret Mahy

Family!... You might just as well celebrate battle, murder and sudden death.

— Margaret Mahy

I think I am too interested in my own ideas to copy anyone else's, but I find that other people's imagery, the…

— Margaret Mahy

At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some…

— Margaret Mahy