Quotes from Anthony Horowitz

You must do what you want.

I fear dying in the middle of a book. It would be so annoying to write 80,000 words and not get to the end. I'm phobic about it. So when I'm writing a book I leave messages all over the house for people to know how the story ends, and then someone can finish it for me.

I'm not good at the modern world.

My writing has always been what you call 'narrative fiction' in the sense that it's got very strong plots and twists at the end.

Writing about magic is harder than writing about spies because you're dealing with something that doesn't really exist.

Inside every fat man, there's a thin man trying to get out.

My generation has left the globe in a mess.

If you look at Charles Dickens's time, there were so many different levels of society and everybody understood their place in it, it was that complex and simple. I'm not sure we have that now.

Everywhere, publishers are being squeezed out.

If my children were as unhappy as I was at school, I'd send them somewhere else, but it never occurred to my parents.

Until he lost all his money, my father was a successful north London Jewish businessman. He was unusual among his immediate family in that he was enormously cultured and had an incredible library.

I feel very privileged to have reached so many kids because a life without stories, without the power of books, would be a very grey world, it's good to add colour.

My father was aloof, very strange and very distant.

There's something very strange about Sherlock Holmes, especially if you're an English schoolboy. When you read the stories, they stay with you forever.

Relationships between writers and publishers are of course very strange and change all the time, rather like a see-saw.

You're my closest friend and you're thousands of miles away.

I didn't really have a favourite subject at school as I was useless at everything.

It's funny how things work out sometimes.

Let me tell you, Alex. He's a crook. He's based here in Miami. He's a nasty piece of work." "He's mexican" Troy added.

I do believe quite strongly in evil.

I'm a private victim of a peculiar household.

Once you get into the world of dystopia, it's hard to avoid plagiarism, because other people have had such powerful visions.

Was it fate? Was it destiny?" "I think it was Alan Blunt.

We have no money. We have no possessions. Maybe that is why we value the things we do have ... loyalty and friendship.