Mal Peet Quotes

Powerful Mal Peet for Daily Growth

About Mal Peet

Malcolm (Mal) Peet was a renowned British novelist, poet, and playwright, born on May 19, 1957, in Liverpool, England. He spent his early years in the suburbs of London before moving to Norfolk with his family in the late 1960s. These formative years would later influence his works, particularly his love for the English countryside and its inhabitants. Peet studied at the University of East Anglia, where he was tutored by the influential writer and critic Malcolm Bradbury. His time there marked the beginning of his writing career, as he published poems in the university's literary magazine. After graduating, Peet worked as a journalist, which provided him with a rich source of material for his future novels. Peet's literary career took off in 1994 with the publication of his first novel, "Exposure," set in the world of competitive cycling. The book was critically acclaimed and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. His second novel, "The Land of Happiness" (1996), explored the complexities of colonialism through a story set in Suriname. However, it was his third novel, "Tamar" (2005), that brought him international recognition. Set in rural Norfolk, "Tamar" tells the story of a young girl with Down syndrome and her relationship with her father. The book won numerous awards, including the Whitbread Book Award for Children's Fiction and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Peet continued to write novels that dealt with complex themes such as family, identity, and the impact of the past on the present. His final novel, "The Colour of the Sun" (2013), is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and memory. Mal Peet passed away in 2015 at the age of 57 after a battle with cancer. His works continue to be celebrated for their poetic language, compelling narratives, and deep insights into human nature. Some of his most notable quotes include: "Life's about choices... Sometimes you make the wrong ones"; "The past is another country, they do things differently there"; and "Sometimes stories tell themselves."

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Life is a story written in advance, but we don't get to read the ending."

This quote by Mal Peet suggests that life unfolds like a pre-written story, but unlike a book, we don't have access to its conclusion while living it. Life's twists, turns, triumphs, and tribulations are experienced in real-time, often leaving us uncertain about how our personal narratives will ultimately end. This mystery can be both exciting and daunting, inviting us to make the most of each moment as we navigate through life's unpredictable journey.


"Hope is a fragile thing. It needs space to breathe and time to grow."

This quote by Mal Peet suggests that hope, much like living beings, requires nurturing and growth over time. The "space to breathe" refers to the emotional and mental room necessary for hope to flourish. It implies that hope can be stifled or suffocated in oppressive or stressful environments. On the other hand, "time to grow" signifies that hope requires patience and perseverance to develop, suggesting that it may take time before we see its fruition. In essence, the quote highlights the delicate nature of hope and underscores the need for a supportive environment and time to foster its growth.


"The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."

This quote emphasizes personal agency and the power of self-determination. It suggests that the course of our lives is not predestined; rather, it's up to us to create our own future. In other words, we have the freedom and responsibility to shape our own destinies based on the choices we make. This perspective encourages individuals to take control of their lives and strive towards fulfilling their aspirations.


"We are all stories, in the end, just our lives unfolding, trying to find an end."

This quote by Mal Peet suggests that every individual is a story, with our lives serving as the narrative. We each have unique experiences, emotions, decisions, and outcomes that make up the plot of our personal story. As we live, we strive to find resolution or an ending to our story, which can represent the culmination of our life's work, accomplishments, or learnings. This quote highlights the human tendency to seek meaning in our lives and to see ourselves as protagonists in our own stories.


"Time is a river that sweeps us along, but it's also a beach where we can leave our footprints."

This quote by Mal Peet suggests that time flows inexorably like a river, carrying us forward without pause or return. However, within this continuous flow, we have the opportunity to make our mark, to leave tangible evidence of our existence - our footprints - on the 'beach' of time. It is a reminder that while life moves swiftly and relentlessly, we possess the power to shape our experiences and create lasting impacts in the world around us.


Disconnection or alienation from the past has political consequences.

- Mal Peet

Past, Political, Alienation

Teen authors love to flirt with taboo, to grapple - sensitively - with dark and frightening issues, and there is nothing darker and more frightening than cancer.

- Mal Peet

Love, More, Taboo, Flirt

What I value in books is lucidity. I want the language to be rich; I love lexical fireworks on the page, but I have to know what it means. I want to be surprised and delighted, not merely baffled.

- Mal Peet

Love, Want, Means, Delighted

Writing is a form of licensed madness.

- Mal Peet

Writing, Madness, Form, Licensed

It's extremely difficult to describe interestingly what happens on the pitch. Thousands of journalists write millions of words every week trying to do it, so your chances of avoiding cliche are very slim. And you're trying to write fiction, not a match report.

- Mal Peet

Week, Fiction, Very, Chances

History is the heavy traffic that prevents us from crossing the road. We wait, more or less patiently, for it to pause, so that we can get to the liquor store or the laundromat or the burger bar.

- Mal Peet

Wait, More, Prevents, Patiently

Fundamentalism - of any variety - is a form of illiteracy, in that it asserts that it is necessary to read only one book.

- Mal Peet

Illiteracy, Read, Form, One Book

It's a nonsense because, as we all know, there are brilliant 15-year-old readers and hopeless 50-year-old readers. All that categorisation is a matter of bookshop shelves rather than literary categories, I think.

- Mal Peet

Think, Brilliant, I Think, Categories

I find myself, by happy accident, writing 'Young Adult' fiction. However, I dislike such categories.

- Mal Peet

Young, Fiction, However, Categories

I have kind of a personality defect in that I find the word 'no' hard to articulate.

- Mal Peet

Personality, Kind, Defect, Articulate

Normally, I'm a grumpy old man - whenever I read about celebrity, I start to grind my teeth and pull my hair; it seems synonymous with idiocy.

- Mal Peet

Celebrity, Old, Read, Idiocy

Although I now spend most of my time writing novels for teenagers and adults, 'readaloudability' is still a criterion I try to adhere to.

- Mal Peet

Teenagers, Still, Criterion, Adhere

I see genres as generating sets of rules or conventions that are only interesting when they are subverted or used to disguise the author's intent. My own way of doing this is to attempt a sort of whimsical alchemy, whereby seemingly incompatible genres are brought into unlikely partnerships.

- Mal Peet

Doing, Own, Brought, Conventions

Benches and books have things in common beyond the fact that they're generally to do with sitting. Both are forms of public privacy, intimate spaces widely shared.

- Mal Peet

Fact, Shared, Widely, Spaces

I worry about children not having a sense of any direct connection to the past.

- Mal Peet

Children, Worry, Having, Direct Connection

Exposure is about, among other things, the ferocity of the press and the way - in an echo of some of Shakespeare's plays - the modern media creates heroes to destroy them.

- Mal Peet

Some, Other, Plays, Ferocity

The surprising thing is that so many teenage cancer novels are very good. John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars,' recently published by Penguin, was voted Time Magazine's book of the year in 2012 ahead of Hilary Mantel and Zadie Smith.

- Mal Peet

Year, Very, Smith, Novels

A sentence that clots in your mouth is unlikely to flow in your mind.

- Mal Peet

Mind, Sentence, Unlikely, Flow

I want to entertain, but I also want to push the barriers beyond what kids are conditioned into accepting.

- Mal Peet

Want, Barriers, Entertain, Conditioned

The very provision of benches by the council or the corporation acknowledges the human need to be private in public, to be conspicuously idle, to have nothing better to do.

- Mal Peet

Need, Private, Very, Provision

I was taking my first uncertain steps towards writing for children when my own were young. Reading aloud to them taught me a great deal when I had a great deal to learn. It taught me elementary things about rhythm and pace, the necessary musicality of text.

- Mal Peet

Young, Deal, Musicality, Uncertain

After being rejected for years, I found a publisher for 'Keeper,' and it won prizes, and then I had to write a second and a third book because I kept taking the money and spending it.

- Mal Peet

Book, Keeper, Rejected, Publisher

I was a bit odd. I read books and wanted to draw and go to art school.

- Mal Peet

Art, Books, Read, Art School

I'm not sure that when I read 'Treasure Island' for the first time, when I was about 10, I understood all the words or what was going on. But that didn't stop me reading it, and I certainly didn't forget it.

- Mal Peet

Sure, Certainly, Read, Understood

Sex and death, the magnetic poles of fiction, attract us children's writers no less than adult authors, but we have to be more leery of their pull.

- Mal Peet

Death, Fiction, Poles, Authors

I'm working with published authors and some very young undergraduates and lots of people in between. They are lovely people, and they can write.

- Mal Peet

Lovely, Some, Very, Authors

In my seaside town, there is a plethora of benches, each one bearing a little brass plate commemorating a deceased occupant. You sit with ghosts.

- Mal Peet

Town, Each One, Deceased, Sit

It pretty much defeats the purpose of bedtime reading if you fall asleep before the kids do. And you tend to wake up with a matchbox stuck on the end of your nose and/or a potty on your head.

- Mal Peet

Nose, Pretty, Potty, Defeats

Remember that a good football novel has to have the same ingredients as any other good novel: drama, convincing and interesting characters, a strong story-line, and some kind of magic in the writing.

- Mal Peet

Magic, Some, Other, Ingredients

I'm going to get hated for saying this, but honestly, fantasy is easy to write because you can do anything. It's like when Raymond Chandler brings in a bloke with a gun when he's stuck - in fantasy, up pops a wizard, and off we go.

- Mal Peet

Gun, Anything, Brings, Stuck

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