Mark Haddon quotes

Mark Haddon is a celebrated British writer known for his versatility in the literary world. Born in 1962, Haddon has garnered international acclaim for his remarkable works, spanning various genres. He gained widespread recognition with his best-selling novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," which beautifully explores the mind of an autistic teenager. With a keen eye for detail, Haddon effortlessly captures the human experience through his vivid storytelling. From mystery to children's literature, his diverse repertoire includes numerous award-winning books, such as "A Spot of Bother" and "The Red House." As a renowned author, Mark Haddon's captivating tales continue to captivate readers worldwide. Discover the enchanting world of Mark Haddon and immerse yourself in his thought-provoking narratives.

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If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.

- Mark Haddon

Use your imagination, and you'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care.

- Mark Haddon

I better make the plot good. I wanted to make it grip people on the first page and have a big turning point in the middle, as there is, and construct the whole thing like a roller coaster ride.

- Mark Haddon

From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.

- Mark Haddon

Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.

- Mark Haddon

Science and literature give me answers. And they ask me questions I will never be able to answer.

- Mark Haddon

I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.

- Mark Haddon

When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. It needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable.

- Mark Haddon

Children simply don't make the distinction; a book is either good or bad. And some of the books they think are good are very, very bad indeed.

- Mark Haddon

Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.

- Mark Haddon

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

- Mark Haddon

I've worked in television long enough to know that when you stop enjoying that type of thing you go home and do something else.

- Mark Haddon

B is for bestseller.

- Mark Haddon

Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

- Mark Haddon

Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.

- Mark Haddon

That's important to me, to find the extraordinary inside the ordinary.

- Mark Haddon

My book has a very simple surface, but there are layers of irony and paradox all the way through it.

- Mark Haddon

As a kid, I didn't read a great deal of fiction, and I've forgotten most of what I did read.

- Mark Haddon

I am atheist in a very religious mould. I'm always asking myself the big questions. Where did we come from? Is there a meaning to all of this? When I find myself in church, I edit the hymns as I sing them.

- Mark Haddon

The one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes. You've got to entertain them.

- Mark Haddon

Young readers have to be entertained. No child reads fiction because they think it's going to make them a better person.

- Mark Haddon

I started writing books for children because I could illustrate them myself and because, in my innocence, I thought they'd be easier.

- Mark Haddon

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

- Mark Haddon

There's something with the physical size of America... American writers can write about America and it can still feel like a foreign country.

- Mark Haddon

I knew there was a story; once you find a dog with a fork through it, you know there's a story there.

- Mark Haddon

I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I'd never be an astronaut.

- Mark Haddon

If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.

- Mark Haddon

Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.

- Mark Haddon

I think the U.K. is too small to write about from within it and still make it seem foreign and exotic and interesting.

- Mark Haddon

No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it might be. They want an insight into their own.

- Mark Haddon