"I like a composer called Henry Purcell, and I love to listen to Neil Young."

"I always thought it hadn't influenced me very much, but I heard from many people from England that many motives from German fairytales are to be found in my books."

"I like to visit my horse, have a walk with my dog."

"I wish I had more time to visit schools."

"Every German child learns to speak English in school."

"I don't like to eat the same dish every day, so I read very different things."

"If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids."

"I love to read aloud."

"Yes, I always imagined living in other places."

"My daughter, Anna, is almost 15, and my son, Ben, is almost 10."

"And I always read the English translation and always have conversations with my translator, for example about the names. I always have to approve it."

"My son always says I like very weird music."

"I love to read, I love to watch movies, and I love to be with my children."

"Oh, I think every author is inspired by all of the books that she reads."

"I will try to write books until I drop dead."

"I just did a picture book called The Wildest Brother on Earth, and you will find both of my children in there."

"I have two Iceland horses, a very hairy dog called Looney, and a guinea pig."

"And my father always took me to the library. We were both book addicts."

"They are shooting The Thief Lord in Venice at the moment."

"Every reader knows about the feeling that characters in books seem more real than real people."

"I always wanted to ride a dragon myself, so I decided to do this for a year in my imagination."

"Second, there are so many magical places in books that you can't go to, like Hogwarts and Middle Earth, so I wanted to set a story in a place where children can actually go."