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" Books that kids read should be about what is going on in the world. "

Michael Morpurgo

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" Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" I was rather a poor student, too easily distracted - did a lot of gazing out of windows, fine for training to be a writer, but not a great way to achieve in the classroom. The truth is that I was happy to bumble along and do enough to avoid detention, but not much more. "

Michael Morpurgo

" The big relationships you make in your life are with those that you love and if things do go wrong then it's a source of great pain and that lasts. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times. "

Michael Morpurgo

" I got married young, far too young, but it is fine. We are still married 48 years later. I got married at 19. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable. "

Michael Morpurgo

" When I write I try as far as possible to forget I'm writing it at all. I tell it down onto the page, as if I'm telling it to one person only, my best friend. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" With all editing, no matter how sensitive - and I've been very lucky here - I react sulkily at first, but then I settle down and get on with it, and a year later I have my book in my hand. "

Michael Morpurgo

" When I sit down I write very fast... if I haven't finished a book in two or three months then I think it's not going well. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" When I was very little my mother would read to me in bed. She gave me a fascination for stories, and for the music in words. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Marry someone who flatters you. Because I've written 80 books since 'War Horse' but when my wife reads one, all she says is, 'It's quite good, but it's not as good as 'War Horse,' is it?' "

Michael Morpurgo

" Strange questions are the more interesting ones. Children by and large don't try to trip you up... they want to find out how you do this funny thing that you do... if they've loved a story they love to know how it started. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Something I learn every time I stand in front of a bunch of children, I learn never, never to underestimate them or patronise them. "

Michael Morpurgo

" You get to about 65 or 70 and you lose friends and the world does seem to be an endlessly difficult place and tragic place, so it's more and more difficult for me to find the bright lights. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" The most important thing is to live an interesting life. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open. Talk to people and visit interesting places, and don't forget to ask questions. To be a writer you need to drink in the world around you so it's always there in your head. "

Michael Morpurgo

" 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. "

Michael Morpurgo

" As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Don't worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life. "

Michael Morpurgo

" Perhaps it is partly that we need to love books ourselves as parents, grandparents and teachers in order to pass on that passion for stories to our children. It's not about testing and reading schemes, but about loving stories and passing on that passion to our children. "

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. "

Michael Morpurgo