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All Quotes by author - Michael Morpurgo
" Access to books and the encouragement of the habit of reading: these two things are the first and most necessary steps in education and librarians, teachers and parents all over the country know it. It is our children's right and it is also our best hope and their best hope for the future. "
Future
Children
Best
" Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable. "
Failure
Cleansing
Admitting
" A lot of children, like I did, move away from words because of the fear - which is something you have to take out of education: the fear of worrying about what marks you'll get, detention, worrying about letting people down, your parents, teachers. "
Fear
Education
Children
" Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times. "
Down
Always
You
" Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children. "
Pet
Animals
Care
" A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion. "
Story
Own
My Own
" Anything that gets children reading is fine. "
Fine
Children
Anything
" As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short. "
Remember
Short
Attention
" Books that kids read should be about what is going on in the world. "
World
Should
Kids
" By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I'm talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren. "
I Am
Time
Friend
" Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that. "
Took
Me
Key
" Children have to be motivated to want to learn to read. Reading must not be taught simply as a school exercise. "
School
Reading
Children
" Don't worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life. "
Book
Writing
Money
" Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it's through writing, drama or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth. "
Writing
People
Believe
" Everyone is interested in war, in that people don't want it to happen. I'm much more interested in peace than in war but it's important to understand why we fight. "
War
People
Peace
" I become my characters, and then try to allow events in the story to take their own course. I try not to play God, but to let them work out their own destiny. "
Work
Destiny
God
" I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it. "
Doing
Stories
Head
" If I'm serious, yes, I'd like to have done what Shakespeare did... to act and write. You learn so much from acting. One of our great writers, Alan Bennett, does both supremely well. When I write a story, I tend to speak it aloud as I'm writing it. "
Story
Writing
You
" I got married young, far too young, but it is fine. We are still married 48 years later. I got married at 19. "
Still
Years
Fine
" I'm still not sure I want to be a writer. I think of myself as a storyteller more. "
Want
More
Writer
" I really can't write fantasy. I cannot invent a world which does not exist. And I can't read fantasy either. As soon as I realise I'm reading a book that hasn't got its roots in a reality I can comprehend, I switch off. "
Reading
Book
World
" It gives me confidence to know that what I'm writing has a veracity of its own without me having to invent it. When I'm writing fiction, I must believe it to be true, or I can see no point in it. "
Writing
Believe
Confidence
" I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful. "
Studying
You
Will
" It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn't inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years. "
Words
Focus
Flow
" It is the child's understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They're still doing it today with modern technology. "
Child
Today
Doing
" It's good to focus on the universal suffering that goes on in any war. Whatever the right and wrongs of the war, there is always universal suffering. "
War
Always
Focus
" It's the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom. "
Difference
Makes
Teacher
" I was an overly young father, is the most polite way of putting it. I think I was rather immature and all I can say is that I think I've made a much better grandfather... I don't think I was ready to be a father to be honest. "
Better
Think
Say
" I was brought up, as a lot of kids are, on 'Aesop's Fables,' 'Brothers Grimm,' 'La Fontaine,' all those sorts of things. Hans Christian Andersen is a hero of mine. "
Hero
Mine
Up
" I was never a great reader, but there were two stories I loved best: Kipling's 'The Elephant's Child' and 'The Jungle Book.' Deep down, I've always wanted to write a book about a wild child and an elephant. "
Elephant
Best
Child
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