Quotes from Margaret Mahy

These were true things, Laura knew, but they were only part of the truth which was something less orderly than Kate made it sound. Some parts of the full, disorderly truth were lodged in Kate and Laura like splinters of corroding steel. Their feelings had grown around the sharp, wounding edges which didn't hurt anymore but were still there, fossils of pain laid down in the mixed-up strata of memory.

When, suddenly, on an ordinary Wednesday, it seemed to Barney that the world tilted and ran downhill in all directions, he knew he was about to be haunted again.

She wanted everyone kind and affectionate, not passionate and tormenting – everything open, no maggoty secrets and silences, and no arguments with other, darker arguments hidden in them.

This was the hidden machinery of life, not a clean, clinical well-oiled engine, monitored by a thousand meticulous dials, but a crazy, stumbling contraption made up of strange things roughly fitted together – things like a huge water tap, the dogleg stairs, cheese in the soap dish, and a crocheted tea cosy stiff with dirt and topped by a doll's broken face.

Fear can give you urgent wings.

All right," said Eden. "After all, we've got to hide somewhere. And even if they move on a bit faster than we can, they'll still leave signs, won't they? "Yes, they'll drip blood and leave echoes of people laughing," said Timon in a dark voice. Eden looked at him apprehensively. But then Timon laughed himself. "Joking! Joking! Only joking!" he cried, and Eden nodded, echoing his laughter rather uncertainly.

Then, at last, sitting on her stretcher-bed, she took from the very bottom of her pack an old peacock-blue scarf folded around a heavy, square book. She unwrapped it and opened it very carefully, as if guilty secrets might fall from between its pages like pressed flowers. This was Harry's secret. She was a writer.

Anyhow, isn't it a bit wrong to think happiness is all smooth and serene. Isn't it mostly a great energetic struggle - you against the universe - a great whopping opponent, with the referee in its pocket?

I don't know everything I feel, but I do know this. You mustn't ever want anyone but me, Big Science. If you look at any other girl I'll kill her.

Not that it will be easy for you," Miryam continued. "But for the moment - look - it's a wonderful, mysterious thing to be a girl." And, looking at her reflection, Laura thought this might be true.

If people fainted from too much thinking I'd scarcely ever be conscious," Tabitha began at once. "I think and think all the time, and I've never fainted – not once." She looked over at Barney enviously. "Why do the best things always happen to other people and not to a promising writer?

You won't forget that," Claire assured her. "I like things written down," Tabitha mumbled. "Then you've got them for good.

Practise make it perfect!

Honestly, Tabitha, the sooner your novel is written and published the better," Claire said crispl, seeing Barney was made uncomfortable by these comments. "No more talking about Barney's faint. He's better now – that's the main thing." "Ok- let's talk about funerals," Tabitha replied at once.