Top 110 Quotes & Sayings by Darren Shan

The message of 'Zomb-B' is that you have to listen to your own heart and head and question everything. Question stereotypes and the way the world seems or is being presented. Some of the people we should be most concerned about, dangerous right-wing bigots, sound convincing and reasonable.

Every generation likes to think that children don't read as much as they used to when they were young! You listen to some adults saying they were going around reading 'Ulysses' when they were seven or eight! I think children are voracious readers if you give them the right books and if you make those books accessible to them.

I always loved horror, but I read all sorts of books. My favourite as a child was 'The Secret Garden' which has a big influence on Lord Loss, believe it or not!

I grew up on all sorts of horror - Hammer Horror and Vincent Price's 'Theatre Of Blood.' I loved the hidden, scary layers, but there wasn't that much around for youngsters in terms of horror books. I can remember reading Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot' and 'Cujo,' but I thought there should be more for teenaged horror fans.

Anyone who has an imagination can write a book - it's cheap to do - but movies are big money.

Many people think that it is important to have a title before you begin writing the book, but I think you should never sit around waiting for the right title to strike before you start writing. Crack on with the story, put in the hard work, and the title will come eventually.

I think sometimes parents and teachers can push children away from reading by telling them it's something they must do, the same way they must eat their greens and must pass their exams in school. Poppycock! Read or don't read - that's your call.

I was lucky because my mum was a teacher and showed me how to read and write. But most importantly, she encouraged me to use my imagination.

The only way to learn and hone your craft is by working hard and writing regularly.

All reading should be pleasurable! I don't like people who keep reeling out the 'books are so important' line. First and foremost, reading is about entertainment, the same as movies, video games and music.

I think you can spread yourself across any number of genres when you're a writer as long as you have a deep, abiding love for each of them.

My books always focus on the response of the characters to extreme events. As dark as they get, they are ultimately positive, uplifting books about children who take control of their lives and overcome great adversaries. I think that is why they have been so popular.

I have music on when I write. I don't like the isolation otherwise and find the silence deadening.

I'll never forget a meeting with one publisher where they said, 'We don't publish books for teenage boys; teenage boys don't read.'

I wanted to write about racism and xenophobia in 21st Century England and Ireland, but I wanted to do it in an exciting way so that I could reach more readers. Zombies seemed like a good way to do that.

Reading has always been the great love of my life.

One of the things I wanted to do with my own books was bridge the gap between 'Goosebumps' and adult horror.

Stick it up your crack, you warped son of a mutant b*tch!

Even a minute of dying is better than an eternity of nothingness.

I know that no matter how lonely I get, I'll never be truly alone again. Our loved ones don't leave us. They just move out of sight for a while, and wait...in the shades.

The demons were scary, but girls - Well, girls are really terrifying

Destiny is a tower of cards - nudge one just an inch and everything stacked on top comes crashing down. P116

Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins.

I know who the demon thief is - it's me!

You didn't want to die. Most mortals don't, even if they find themselves in as desolate and soul-destroying a spot as you. Almost all of those who take their own lives wish at the last moment that they hadn't. They see at the end how much they've given up, how precious life is, even when it's treated them like dirt and crushed their dreams. Many think they've passed beyond hope, but they never really have, not until they pass beyond life itself. Alas, that knowledge comes too late for most would-be-suicides and they die with regret. Very few are offered the chance that you have been handed.

Now sod off back to your own world, you motherless scum, and save your threats for those who care.

But the universe isn't fair. Things don't work out neatly, pain, hardship and challenges divided equally among those best equipped to deal with them. Sometimes individuals have to be Atlases and carry the weight of the world alone. It shouldn't happen that way, but it does.

The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you.

We all make basic assumptions about things in life, but sometimes those assumptions are WRONG. We must never trust in what we assume, only in what we KNOW.

Cirque du Freak' is the best vampire series ever.

Lovely Arra Sails, nectar to all males, how I'd like to spear you like a whaler spears a whale!

If mankind's destined to bite the bullet, let's bite it and be damned.

Maybe you're going insane." "Maybe," agreed Kernel. "I was joking." "I wasn't.

Better not to start down a wrong path at all than head down it in the hope of making a detour when something better came along.

No, thats not how it happened... Mr crepsley dropped. He was impaled on the stakes. He? died. And it was awful... His cries as he writhed there, bleeding and dying, burning and screaming, will stay with me till I die. Maybe I'll even carry them with me after I go.

But stories don't end. They continue as long as you're alive. You just have to get on with things. Turn the page, start a new chapter, find out what's in store for you next, and keep your fingers crossed that it's not too awful. Even if you know in your heart and soul that it most probably will be.

Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you.

There are a lot of black-hearted, mean-spirited bastards in the world. It's important that we hold them to acount. But always remember that you might be the most black-hearted and mean-spirited in the lot, so hold yourself the most accountable of all.

I don't like it, but my hands are tied. I just want you to know this: if I ever get the chance to betray you, I will. If the opportunity arises to pay you back, I'll take it. You'll never be able to trust me.

A world without pain, loss, betrayal, hate, death, loneliness? Impossible!

Students never appreciate their teachers while they are learning. It is only later, when they know more of the world, that they understand how indebted they are to those who instructed them. Good teachers expect no praise or love from the young. They wait for it, and in time, it comes.

Childhood is the purest state. The pure of heart never leave it behind. Their life merely takes them on a cirtuitous route away from, and then back to it.

I mean, seriously, what lady of taste could resist a shiny green head of hair like mine?

Even in death may you triumphant

A world of "if"s, but it would make no difference. If I could go back in time... but I couldn't. The past was behind me. The best thing now would be to stop looking over my shoulder. It was time to forget the past and look to the present and future.

When it comes to impending, unavoidable extinction, ignorance is bliss.

I don't think anyone ever remembers what they were really like as kids. Adults think they do, but they don't. Photos and videos don't capture the real you, or bring back to life the person you used to be. You have to return to the past to do that.

For an hour or more he was neither human nor vampire, just a howling, hungry creature of dark delights.

It is good to be taught humility when we are young. If we do not exeperience pain as children, we will cause pain as adults.

You can't hang around waiting for somebody else to pull your strings. Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you. And if it throws more than you'd like, more than you think you can handle? Well then you just have to find the heroism within yourself and play out the hand you've been dealt. The universe never sets a challenge that can't be met. You just need to believe in yourself in order to find the strength to face it.

I'm starting to understand that fear is like cancer - you can beat it back, but if it returns, it can be worse than ever.

That’s what you taught me - we don’t have to accept destiny or Des Tiny. We can create our own future, all of us. We have the power to rule our lives - we just have to make the choice to use it.

Of course I have nightmares-Who doesn't?

But you're like me,” he says. “An outsider. Different. A freak. We're both weird, which is why we get along.

The moon's a powerful mistress. She can reach through any wall or covering and work her wicked charms.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." - Harkat Mulds (Hunters of the Dusk)

If he turned his back on humanity now, it would be forever.

You do not have to be alone. The world never inflicts loneliness upon us. That is something we choose or reject by ourselves.

But in life we don't usually get to choose the time of our defining moments. We just have to stand and face them when they come, no matter what sort of a state we're in.

It is too easy to say 'what if' and paint a picture of a perfect world.