But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.

— Mark Haddon

...companionship refused is worse than loneliness.

— Mark Haddon

He is the only man she has ever loved, and he has dumped her like ballast. She needs to find an explanation that does not make her a fool and him an animal, but every thought of him is a knife turning in the wound love made.

— Mark Haddon

He said that it was very difficult to become an astronaut. I said that I knew. You had to become an officer in the air force, and you had to take lots of orders and be prepared to kill other human beings, and I couldn't take orders. Also, I didn't have 20/20 vision, which you needed to be a pilot.

— Mark Haddon

I always thought it was disgusting and ugly, how the weak live their lives depending on each other shamefully licking each other's wounds. A way of life that no one could truly want. I was certain that no greatness could ever come from that. That's what I thought until I met you.

— Mark Haddon

I am really interested in eccentric minds. It's rather like being fascinated by how cars work. It's really boring if your car works all the time. But as soon as something happens, you get the bonnet up. If someone has an abnormal or dysfunctional state of mind, you get the bonnet up.

— Mark Haddon

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

— Mark Haddon

I find people confusing.

— Mark Haddon

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful, and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

— Mark Haddon

I like poetry when I don't quite understand why I like it. Poetry isn't just a question of wrapping something up and giving it to someone else to unwrap. It just doesn't work like that.

— Mark Haddon