Michael Morpurgo quotes - page 2

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)
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
Anything that gets children reading is fine.
Michael Morpurgo
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
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
I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful.
Michael Morpurgo
Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.
Michael Morpurgo
As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short.
Michael Morpurgo
Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable.
Michael Morpurgo
Don't worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life.
Michael Morpurgo
We all know that the great memories of our childhood are the little triumphs - it doesn't really matter whether that was in writing, art, on the hockey field or on the football field. It's something that makes you feel - 'I can do this stuff'. (Michael Morpurgo)
I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it.
Michael Morpurgo
If it is possible to be happy in the middle of a nightmare, then Topthorn and I were happy that summer.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
Michael Morpurgo
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)
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
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.
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
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