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" I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it. "
Michael Morpurgo
Doing
Stories
Head
Related Quotes:
" 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
Fear
Education
Children
" Only the best books are special. Why? Because they open our eyes, touch us, excite us, extend us. "
Michael Morpurgo
Touch
Best
Eyes
" Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that. "
Michael Morpurgo
Took
Me
Key
" You know, I really wish now I'd had the nerve to become an actor. Because I'd have been Robert Redford, no question. "
Michael Morpurgo
Know
You
Question
" 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. "
Michael Morpurgo
Work
Destiny
God
" 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
Pain
Wrong
You
" Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning, that there is a light at the end of every tunnel. "
Michael Morpurgo
Heart
Sun
Morning
" I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful. "
Michael Morpurgo
Studying
You
Will
" 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
Love
Children
Loving
" Much that is great in literature is an acquired taste, and you have to acquire it in the first place. Our job as parents is essentially to pass on the enthusiasm we had for the things we loved. That's how we'll get them to fall in love with reading in the first place and, hopefully, to stay in love with it. "
Michael Morpurgo
Fall
Reading
Great
" 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. "
Michael Morpurgo
Words
Focus
Flow
" One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But what we should also be looking at, and a lot more urgently, is those who fail. "
Michael Morpurgo
More
Focus
Great
" Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children. "
Michael Morpurgo
Pet
Animals
Care
" 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
Future
Children
Best
" 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. "
Michael Morpurgo
Writing
People
Believe
" 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
People
Eyes
World
" It is the child's understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They're still doing it today with modern technology. "
Michael Morpurgo
Child
Today
Doing
" 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
Two
Down
Fast
" 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
Music
Mother
Bed
" Don't worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life. "
Michael Morpurgo
Book
Writing
Money
" 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
React
Settle
Matter
" Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers. "
Michael Morpurgo
Life
Live
People
" Paying more heed to the lessons of the past might teach us to be a little more cautious about some of the political decisions taken today. "
Michael Morpurgo
Past
Teach
Decisions
" It's the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom. "
Michael Morpurgo
Difference
Makes
Teacher
" Remember to write for yourself, not for a market and give yourself time to develop your own style, your own voice. It takes a lifetime. Enjoy it! "
Michael Morpurgo
Time
Style
Yourself
" 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
World
Me
Lights
" 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
War
People
Peace
" Books that kids read should be about what is going on in the world. "
Michael Morpurgo
World
Should
Kids
" 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
You
Wife
War
" With reading, I was very lucky. I had a mother who read to me, not because she had time - she was a busy woman - but she found 10 minutes to come and sit on my bed with a book. "
Michael Morpurgo
Time
Mother
Busy