“I think Britain has this tradition which suggests that if you make the...” — Mark Haddon Quote

“I think Britain has this tradition which suggests that if you make the readers laugh too much, you can't really be serious. Whereas, I think one of the functions laughter can perform in a book, as in life, is that it's a reaction to genuine horror.”

“Jane Austen was writing about boring people with desperately limited lives. We forget this because we've seen too many of her books on screen.”

“I've always really enjoyed writing different things because I get bored very easily.”

“Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.”

“It was the Sephardi Jews who brought fish and chips to Britain, actually, believe it or not, from the Mediterranean world. Apart from actually eating and selling fish and chips, they were kind of debt enforcers.”

“People looked at my early pictures and called them the most disgusting things ever, and now 'Hairspray' is being done at every school in Britain and America.”