Mal Peet Quotes

Fantasy is my genre and my home in the writing world. I consider it the biggest writing room in all literature, where there are literally no boundaries at all.

For me, even in my first book, the pleasures of writing anything magical is that it has to be physical. It has to be grounded and very much in this world. Then, I get to play with all the consequences of this new thing.

Fantasy enabled me to break the shackles and create a whole new level of 'the world is in danger' stakes.

I think I have a God complex, and I like moving mountains and writing stories that affect entire worlds, and it's a bit hard to do that in a contemporary setting because you have reality intruding. Whereas, when you set your own reality, you can make up your own rules and do whatever you like.

You can't write about fantasy without being ridiculous.

I'm not good at fantasy, no. I have been offered stuff, and I can't get my head around it.

It's hard out here for a fantasy writer, after all; there's all these 'rules' I'm supposed to follow, or the Fantasy Police might come and make me do hard labor in the Cold Iron Mines.

I don't really understand why so many fantasy writers choose to focus on worlds that just seem strangely denuded. But to them, I guess it doesn't seem strange. And I guess that's their privilege. It isn't mine.

Part of the appeal of fantasy for me is that I don't get bored. If I want to write quasi-Medieval, that's what I write. If I feel like doing contemporary for a while, then I'll do it.

I surround myself with fantastical things because it makes it a little easier to write fantastical stories.

When I'm writing books, something weird happens; and the result is the books contain a large amount of what you could call 'supernaturalism.' As a writer, I find I need that to explain the world I'm writing about.

Fantasy and science fiction are my comfort spot.

The idea of science fiction, mythology, and creating a world is my favourite thing. I do love the reality of dramas and playing that, but being able to start from scratch, to completely build the character and this world, I love that.

With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts or ride dolphins any day of the week.

My feeling is that writing Fantasy should be harder - not easier - than writing any other kind of fiction.

I'm an escapist kind of writer.

Fantasy and science fiction are where my brain lives.

Most of my short stories are fantasy.

My first three manuscripts were epic fantasy - like high fantasy - and then the fourth one was a historical fantasy about Mozart as a child. I still have a soft spot for that one!

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

I always felt that sci-fi and fantasy were my thing. Bit of a geek, I'm afraid. But I like creating worlds, and I felt it was a genre that gave me more freedom. It just seemed like I belonged there.

Realism isn't something most people associate with the fantasy genre, yet it's an essential element of great fantasy writing.

Here's the thing, for me at least: this is a huge genre now. It wasn't always so. Not so many years ago, it wasn't so. There is a tremendous diversity in fantasy today.

I think when writers play with dragons, we are simply doing what fantasy writers have always done.