Children's authors don't talk down or patronise their younger readers.

I am opposed to war, to killing people, to any kind of hatred and violence.

I can remember being eight, and I like writing about that age of innocence when children still have a sense of wonder.

I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay.

I move between the two: I write an adult novel, and then I write a children's book. I quite enjoy that. It's a nice change of pace each time.

I suppose books are my real passion in life.

I wrote my first book at 20, but my whole focus from about the age of 12 was to be a writer.

It's a wonderful thing to write for children.

People try to glorify war, particularly those who aren't actually fighting in them. People tend to make heroes of those who are fighting in them.

Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away.

War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept.

What makes a classic is difficult to define. It's entirely subjective, of course. And the term is employed far too promiscuously.

I hope for so much from every book I read. And time and again, I find myself disappointed. I look across my bookshelves and see hundreds of titles which in my memory seem merely mediocre or second-rate. Only occasionally does a novel appear for which I feel a lasting passion, a book that I think could in time become a classic.

It's not easy making a living as a writer, and for many years I worked at a Waterstones in Dublin. It was a good environment for an aspiring writer, with lots of events and authors appearing.

Throughout my teenage years, I read 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens every December. It was a story that never failed to excite me, for as well as being a Dickens enthusiast, I have always loved ghost stories.