If I'm desperate, I'll read anything. But even when I can be choosy, I still have no hard-and-fast rules. I have rules about what I won't read, rather than what I will. No science fiction, no romance, no chick lit. Although even these rules can be broken.

I've never really been able to tolerate zoos.

I spent three years at RMIT doing a bachelor of arts and media studies. It was a hugely formative experience. As someone who had a private Catholic school upbringing, the world suddenly became a much bigger and better place for me.

I have spent a great deal of my time defending my work against those who see it as too complicated, too old in approach, too bleak to qualify as children's literature. This has been the bane of my life.

My mother went to university, my father didn't. But they are very educated, very wise people. My father went to the military, so he's worldly.

When people grow up with a family characterized by chaos and uncertainty and fragility, you look for a substitution for that.

Personally, I've always known that I wanted to go back to work because I'm confident, and I'm certain that my daughter will have a better mother in me if I'm doing the things that I'm excited about and that I'm passionate about.

At the end of the day, I mean, I love my father, but I was always a mama's girl growing up. I'm from the South, so there's always something about me when I'm just with my girls or even my mother. There's just a strong connection there.