Quotes from Malorie Blackman

Any anxieties publishers have about putting a child on the front cover of a book who isn't white is very old fashioned.

I think what we need, especially in publishing, is more commissioning editors and editors who are people of colour.

We need more people working in the publishing industry itself who are people of colour.

I subscribe to the online Urban Dictionary's definition of nerd: 'one whose IQ exceeds his weight'. I'm also keen on the same Urban Dictionary's definition of geek: 'the person you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult'. I happily proclaim myself a book nerd/reading geek and proud of it.

Life isn't about quantity, it's about quality.

A good book is a good book. End of story.

I don't believe in regrets. There are a few things I'd do differently, but I can't go back in time and redo them, however much I might wish to. All I can do is learn from past mistakes and move forward.

You can have all the talent in the world, but without determination, you won't get very far.

Children find prescriptive reading lists daunting, and they are a dangerous thing to have in schools.

Shakespeare's 'Othello' was inspired by Cinthio's 'A Moorish Captain'; his 'Hamlet' came from Saxo Grammaticus's 'Amleth.'

Being the Children's Laureate has been educational, sometimes hectic, but most of all, great fun.

I suppose I've always lived in my own head. I didn't discover boys till sixth form. Then suddenly it was, 'Oh! Boys!'

I believe we need more culturally diverse books - about disabled characters, though not about their disability, about people with different sexual orientations, or a boy who is a cross-dresser. We need to reflect the diversity of our society.

I loved reading when I grew up but did feel totally invisible because I couldn't see myself and my life reflected in the books I was reading.

The worst thing about being the laureate has been the attitude of a tiny minority of adults who haven't liked some of the things I'm supposed to have said and who have used it as an opportunity to be verbally abusive and nasty, but I haven't let it rule my world!

I believe each individual can have a say and make a difference.

I hope to instill, in every child I meet, my love and enthusiasm for reading and stories.

I try to widen the horizons of every child I meet, and part of that is promoting diverse forms, be it graphic novels, stories told in a narrative voice, or more translated books, as well as more diverse writers and more diverse characters.

History should belong to all of us, and it needs to include people from different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, it risks becoming irrelevant to children, who could then become disenchanted with education.

In a television interview, I said that diversity in our children's books should include the adventures of disabled children, travellers and gipsies, LGBT teens, different cultures, classes, colours, religions. It shouldn't be a token gesture, nor do such stories need to be 'issue-based'.

When life knocks you down, keep getting up.

The news lies all the time. They tell us what they think we would want to hear.

He pulls the hood over my head. I try to pull back. I'm not trying to run away. I just want to see her... One last time.

If a child wants to read 'Twilight' over Middlemarch, they should be encouraged - the important thing is to get them reading in the first place.