Quotes from Anthony Horowitz

Books grow old faster when they're not being read

My mum and dad were Jehovah's Witnesses, which I know sounds crazy but it's the truth. Mum used to go round the island, distributing copies of The Watchtower, door to door.' He paused. 'Do you know what her biggest tragedy was? She ran out of doors.

We need to tolerate intolerance

He had followed the trail left by a dead man. It was only now that he realised it might lead only to the grave.

He wants to make money! And he doesn't care if he trashes my life to get it. I told you. That man is vile. He should never have come to this island. He's positively evil.

It was the sort of thing Alex had seen a thousand times in films and on television, and he was shocked by how different the reality was.

Most of the jars on my spice rack had that sticky, dusty quality that comes from never being opened and you'd have had to root around in the fridge to find a vegetable that wasn't limp, bruised or withered – or all three.

Don't be sorry. Our lives don't belong to us, so we can't complain if they're taken away.

subverting the status quo again.

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! I wish they'd had books like this when I was young…

that story you told him about losing your own children, and now I'm wondering if that was even true." "Of course it was true!" Mrs. Jones snapped, and just for once, she betrayed her emotions. She was angry. Two dark spots had appeared in her cheeks.

Actually, I'd say that both of you are fucking idiots, if you want the truth,' he began. 'You come over here like Batman and Robin and you get yourselves involved in a murder investigation. But you don't help anyone because you've got bigger fish to fry. In fact, you were obstructive. You say you made no difference to the crime scene, but that's not true.

I'm not sure it actually matters what we read. Our lives continue along the straight lines that have been set out for us. Fiction merely allows us a glimpse of the alternative. Maybe that's one of the reasons we enjoy it.

Well, he had never smoked because he thought it was good for him and, if cancer had any fancy ideas about killing him, it would just have to take its place in the queue.

felt particularly sorry for Judith Matheson. She'd put so much work into organising the weekend and what had she got out of it? A dead sponsor, a cut-up lawn and a divorce.

Names have a way of stamping themselves on our consciousness. Peter Pan, Luke Skywalker, Jack Reacher, Fagin, Shylock, Moriarty. . . can we imagine them as anything else?

He sounded almost too genuine to be genuine.

There were only worries. She could think of nothing else.

What?' I couldn't believe what he had just said. 'She's faking being blind?' It was one of the most disgusting things I'd ever heard.

At the moment, there's just the four of us who know that your wife is a cold-hearted, manipulative bitch. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep it that way. What do you think?

There are some people who argue that we are too sensitive these days, that because we're so afraid of causing offence, we no longer engage in any serious sort of argument at all. But that's how it is. It's why political chat-shows on television have become so very boring. There are narrow lines between which all public conversations have to take place and even a single poorly chosen word can bring all sorts of trouble down on your head.

He was like an actor in one of those plays from between the wars where everyone talks for a long time but very little happens.

Why do you have to be so bloody uncooperative all the time? Do you have any idea how difficult it is writing these books?

I couldn't see myself as some twenty-first century Shirley Valentine, sitting on the rocks, a thousand miles from the nearest Waterstones.