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...Because a book is a little empathy machine. It puts you inside somebody else’s head. You see out of the world through somebody else’s eyes. It’s ve...more

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I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children . . . do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wro...more

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There are people who think that things that happen in fiction do not really happen. These people are wrong.

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Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit,...more

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At home, my father ate all the most burnt pieces of toast. 'Yum!' he'd say, and 'Charcoal! Good for you!' and 'Burnt toast! My favorite!' and he'd eat...more

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I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we lear...more

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His name is Marcus: he is four and a half and possesses that deep gravity and seriousness that only small children and mountain gorillas have ever bee...more

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The magic and the danger of fiction is this: it allows us to see through other eyes. It takes us to places we have never been, allows us to care about...more

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Loyalty was a great thing, but no lieutenants should be forced to choose between their leader and a circus with elephants.

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It is good for children to find themselves facing the elements of a fairy tale - they are well-equipped to deal with these

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I thought about adults. I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies, like children’s books hidden in the mid...more

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I finally made friends with my father when I entered my twenties. We had so little in common when I was a boy, and I am certain I had been a disappoin...more

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I thought about adults. I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies...

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Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.'I said, ...more

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I'm going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they alw...more