The Fire-Raiser - Kitty Plays the Piano (Episode Three)

We bowled a few buildings over, aged a few, and built some new ones.

– Designer Dean Cato, on refashioning the Upper Hutt set from TV show Country GP, for The Fire-Raiser

... I got more pleasure from writing The Fire-Raiser than I've had from any of my pieces for TV.

– Fire-Raiser's creator Maurice Gee, in his backgrounder

You be careful Edgar — don't hurt them too much.

– Mrs Marwick (Elizabeth Moody), to her son

Matches were magical to him and full of secret whispers, promises.

– Writer Maurice Gee, in chapter one of The Fire-Raiser

In the teatree Irene watched Edgar Marwick approach. She remembered him from the time in her father's office and on the steps when he had knocked Kitty flying. Then he had seemed wild and dangerous, but now, as he grew taller crossing the paddock, as his boots ate up the land, he was like someone from a nightmare. He was magical, terrifying; she felt he could strip the bushes away with his eyes and uncover her, and reach out with an arm and pick her up . . . Irene was used to managing adults, but knew that here was one she would never control. It was like being shown that beyond grownups was another group of beings, magical and powerful and not to be approached.

– Writer Maurice Gee, in chapter seven of The Fire-Raiser

Flame filled the inside of his head. It ran along his arteries. It licked around his bones.

– Writer Maurice Gee, in chapter one of The Fire-Raiser

Play for me, child.

– Mrs Marwick confuses Kitty for someone else, in chapter eight of novel The Fire-Raiser