Michael Morpurgo

Something I learn every time I stand in front of a bunch of children, I learn never, never to underestimate them or…

— Michael Morpurgo

Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I…

— Michael Morpurgo

stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions

— Michael Morpurgo

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

— Michael Morpurgo

“Why does this war have to destroy anything and everything that’s fine and beautiful?”

— Michael Morpurgo

When I was very little my mother would read to me in bed. She gave me a fascination for stories, and for…

— Michael Morpurgo

Any problem can be solved between people if only they can trust each other

— Michael Morpurgo

Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers

— Michael Morpurgo

My Albert married his Maisie Brown as he said he would. But I think she never took to me, nor I to…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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.…

— 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.…

— Michael Morpurgo

Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it's through writing, drama or art is so important…

— Michael Morpurgo

But just as soon as this war's over and finished with,I'll get back home and marry her.I've grown up with her, Joey,…

— Michael Morpurgo

Paying more heed to the lessons of the past might teach us to be a little more cautious about some of the…

— Michael Morpurgo

“One evening, after he’d read a piece about yet another savagery in Bosnia, I saw there were tears in his eyes. ‘Don’t…

— Michael Morpurgo

Our great problem, is that children now know whatever they want to know - at the press of a button they can…

— Michael Morpurgo

Much that is great in literature is an acquired taste, and you have to acquire it in the first place. Our job…

— Michael Morpurgo

There's a mouse in here with me. He's sitting there in the light of the lamp, looking up at me. He seems…

— Michael Morpurgo

Access to books and the encouragement of the habit of reading: these two things are the first and most necessary steps in…

— Michael Morpurgo

“And they took the strain and off they went up the field the plough cutting clean. I can mind how I stood…

— Michael Morpurgo

I think people are more in contact now with the consequences of war than they've been for a very long time. And…

— Michael Morpurgo

“Father was always getting into scrapes when he was a lad. But the worst scrape he ever hot hisself into was the…

— Michael Morpurgo

There's room for all sorts of magic and miracles in this world - that's what I think.

— Michael Morpurgo

“Life must not be spent always hoping, always waiting. Life is for living. -Kensuke”

— 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…

— Michael Morpurgo

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

— Michael Morpurgo

“After this night is over, then you can drift away, they you can sleep for ever, for nothing will ever matter again.”

— Michael Morpurgo

Only the best books are special. Why? Because they open our eyes, touch us, excite us, extend us.

— Michael Morpurgo

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

— Michael Morpurgo

“You know something, you never know what lonely is until you are really alone, alone all day, alone all night, with no…

— 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

I could believe only in the hell I was living in, a hell on earth, and it was man-made, not God-made.

— Michael Morpurgo

“But look after yourself - there will be great dangers on the way. Remember, the right road is never the easy road.”

— Michael Morpurgo

A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create…

— Michael Morpurgo

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

Any story you write about war, or film you make about war, is bound to be political whether you like it or…

— 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

But I didn’t dare. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough.

— Michael Morpurgo