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.”

“It is so beautiful but home is home, and home is best.”

“Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.”

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

“When I think of Tomodachi, I think of your mother. Your mother, she too lose her baby. She lose you. That very sad thing for her. Maybe she come looking, and she not find you. You not there when she come. She think you dead for ever. But she see you in her mind. Now as I speak maybe she see you in her mind. You always there. I know. I have son too. I have Michiya. He always in my head. Like Kimi. They dead for sure, but they in my head. They in my head forever.”

“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.”

“Anything that gets children reading is fine.”

“...that we should look out of the window, choose a star, and make a last wish before we went to sleep, and she told us we should wish the best, not just for each of ourselves, but more for each other, because we were all the best of friends.”

“When I was growing up in the Forties and Fifties, you could hide your children from the difficulties of life, but today you can't separate children's contact with the adult world today.”

“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.”

“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.”

“cause when there's life there's still hope”

“I can hate you more, but I'll never love you less.”

“Children have to be motivated to want to learn to read. Reading must not be taught simply as a school exercise.”

“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.”

“It is the child's understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They're still doing it today with modern technology.”

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

“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.”

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

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