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" I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful. "
Michael Morpurgo
Studying
You
Will
Related Quotes:
" 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
" 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
Writing
Believe
Confidence
" 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 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
War
Always
Focus
" I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it. "
Michael Morpurgo
Doing
Stories
Head
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
Great
Truth Is
Truth
" I write fiction. I make things up, it's what I do. "
Michael Morpurgo
Up
Write
Fiction
" Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times. "
Michael Morpurgo
Down
Always
You
" Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers. "
Michael Morpurgo
Life
Live
People
" Books that kids read should be about what is going on in the world. "
Michael Morpurgo
World
Should
Kids
" When children are very young, you read them books that are positive to help them go to sleep. But there comes a moment when they begin to understand the difficulties of the world. They know there are problems and the books they read should reflect that, not gloss over them. "
Michael Morpurgo
Children
Sleep
World
" 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
" Some writers - most, I suspect - write in isolation. I think I'd always found that quite difficult. "
Michael Morpurgo
Difficult
Isolation
Think
" As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short. "
Michael Morpurgo
Remember
Short
Attention
" To write something you have to feel it and know it, and that's not comfortable. "
Michael Morpurgo
Know
Feel
Comfortable
" 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
" 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
" 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
Underestimate
Time
Stand
" 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
" 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
Hero
Mine
Up
" Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable. "
Michael Morpurgo
Failure
Cleansing
Admitting
" Anything that gets children reading is fine. "
Michael Morpurgo
Fine
Children
Anything
" 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 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
" 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
" Read a lot - poems, prose, stories, newspapers, anything. Read books and poems that you think you will like and some that you think might not be for you. You might be surprised. "
Michael Morpurgo
Will
Books
You
" 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