Quotes by Michael Morpurgo

About Michael Morpurgo:

Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelling", for recurring themes such as the triumph of an outsider or survival, for characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or World War I.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Michael Morpurgo

I write fiction. I make things up, it's what I do.

Michael Morpurgo

Some writers - most, I suspect - write in isolation. I think I'd always found that quite difficult.

Michael Morpurgo

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

Michael Morpurgo

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

Michael Morpurgo

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

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

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

Michael Morpurgo

To write something you have to feel it and know it, and that's not comfortable.

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

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 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

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

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

I think there's something about studying a book which will kill it if you're not careful.

Michael Morpurgo

Anything that gets children reading is fine.

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

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

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

I'm still not sure I want to be a writer. I think of myself as a storyteller more.

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

Author Bio

  • NameMichael Morpurgo
  • DescriptionBritish children's writer
  • BornOctober 5, 1943
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPoet; Writer; Novelist
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire