Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon
Mark Haddonis an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He won the Whitbread Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for his work...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 September 1962
clever mind literature
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.
character thinking people
I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.
book taken darkness
From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.
moving kids theatre
What I love about the theatre is that it's always metaphorical. It's like going back to being a kid again, and we're all pretending in a room. Sometimes, when the pretending really works, I find it much, much more moving than something on film.
fall people half
Things can be funny when people are uneasy. It softens them up and stops them falling asleep on the sofa. I like those moments where people half-smile and half-wince.
book writing done
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.
book kids imperfection
If kids like a picture book, they're going to read it at least 50 times. Read anything that often, and even minor imperfections start to feel like gravel in the bed.
stars fall night
..because when we look up into the sky at night there will be no darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars, all falling.
writing today stories
Well, we're meant to be writing stories today,
mean smell people
People say that you always have to tell the truth. But they do not mean this because you are not allowed to tell old people that they are old and you are not allowed to tell people if they smell funny or if a grown-up has made a fart. And you are not allowed to say, 'I don't like you,' unless that person has been horrible to you.
people stranger mets
I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.
lost timetables
... why I like timetables, because they make sure I don't get lost in time.
eye
How pleased we are to have our eyes opened but how easily we close them again.
real people film
You make a film you feel is as real as possible and hope people react as though it were real.