Quotes from Michael Bond

They can't," said Jonathan. "The Dame is always played by a man." "And the Principal Boy is always a girl," agreed Judy. "It's traditional." "I don't see why," insisted Paddington.

PADDINGTON STEPS OUT

Paddington took a deep breath and gave the assistant a hard stare. It was one of the extra special hard ones which his Aunt Lucy had taught him and which he kept for emergencies.

Paddington] looked up to see that Mrs Brown had been joined by a little girl, with laughing blue eyes and long, fair hair.

Things aren't always

In 1941, the BBC was setting up local, low-powered transmitters that were switched off if there was an air raid so they couldn't be used by German planes to navigate. As a 'youth in training,' my job was to switch the transmitter on in the mornings and off at night, and to check that it, and the feeder land lines, were working.

The great advantage of having a bear as a central character is that he can combine the innocence of a child with the sophistication of an adult.

Every small boy wanted to be a steam engine driver when they grew up in the old days, including me. There's something very special about them - the noise, the smell, the steam coming out everywhere.

After the war, I went to the BBC monitoring service in Caversham, a suburb of Reading. It was a big aerial system to listen to radio programmes all over the world.