I have to keep healthy; otherwise, I jeopardise my career.

I look back and wonder why I wasted my time talking about fried potatoes with the great John Lennon. But that's what was so fabulous about him - he was very down to earth.

I was the youngest of three kids, and from the age of four, singing was my way of getting attention.

I realised when I sang at family parties and Christmases I'd suddenly get everyone's attention, and, being the youngest of three, I thought what a brilliant attention-seeking ploy it was.

I don't want to just do independent movies and I don't want to just do adventure films. I enjoy both, and I think both are cogent.

There's no destination. The journey is all that there is, and it can be very, very joyful.

Part of the joy of writing for kids is that you have to have a real adventure story. You can get really involved in the fantastic in a way that perhaps you can't so much in adult fiction.

Each one seems to be, in some way, essentially different from the others, and each is a surprise to me. I think that making books, or any kind of art, might also be like mining. The artist digs into his or her life and imagination and never knows what they'll find. That's the adventure.