--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a…" description: "\"“Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg" --- # Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to… ![“Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to…” quote by Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg) > ““Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything. And reading is key. There were noises made briefly, a few years ago, about the idea that we were living in a post-literate world, in which the ability to make sense out of written words was somehow redundant, but those days are gone: words are more important than they ever were: we navigate the world with words, and as the world slips onto the web, we need to follow, to communicate and to comprehend what we are reading. People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas, cannot communicate, and translation programs only go so far. The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I’ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy. It’s tosh. It’s snobbery and it’s foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you. Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian “improving” literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant. We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. \[from, Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming \]”” [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Fiction hooks readers, builds vocabulary, and shows reading can be enjoyable, leading to lifelong literacy and communication skills. **In simple terms:** Stories make reading fun and teach words and ideas. Key Takeaway Encourage kids to read books they love. Themes literacy reading education culture communication Mood hopeful inspired Type motivational educational When to use this quote - parental guidance - school curricula - library programs - book clubs - family reading time Key Concepts cognitive development motivation language acquisition Questions to Reflect On - How can we match books to a child's interests? - What barriers prevent children from reading for pleasure? A Different Perspective Not all children will enjoy the same books, so selection must be personalized. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/) [Children'S Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children-s-books-2/) [Enjoy reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enjoy-reading/) [Fiction Uses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fiction-uses-682274/) [First time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/first-time/) [Letting Read](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letting-read-682275/) [Libraries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/libraries/) [Literate Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/literate-children-682277/) [Literate World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/literate-world-682276/) [Love of reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love-of-reading/) [Motivation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/motivation/) [Read Reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-reading/) [Reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reading/) [Rl Stine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rl-stine-220893/) [Turn the page](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/turn-the-page/) [Years ago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/years-ago/) ## Related quotes > [The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/the-simplest-way-to-make-sure-that-we-raise-literate-children-is-to/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/we-need-our-children-to-get-onto-the-reading-ladder-anything-that/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“I think of myth and magic as the hieroglyphics of the human psyche. 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Ultimately, you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/take-a-book-the-poorest-one-written-but-read-it-with-the-passion-that/) [Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/) > [I've learned how to sleep on airplanes. When I'm taking a trans-Atlantic flight or going to a different continent, I will always read because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-isner/i-ve-learned-how-to-sleep-on-airplanes-when-i-m-taking-a-trans/) [John Isner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-isner/) > [“Find a quiet place, and just read. If you’re reading an ebook, clear away everything else but your ebook reader. Then you settle into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-babauta/find-a-quiet-place-and-just-read-if-you-re-reading-an-ebook-clear/) [Leo Babauta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-babauta/) > [“We have never even begun to understand a people until we have found something that we do not understand. So long as we find…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/we-have-never-even-begun-to-understand-a-people-until-we-have-found/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) ## More by Neil Gaiman > [“People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and a backache and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/people-talk-about-books-that-write-themselves-and-it-s-a-lie-books/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“Like all sentient beings, Fat Charlie had a weirdness quotient. 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If all you have is a beginning, then once you've written…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/you-need-more-than-a-beginning-if-you-re-going-to-start-a-book-if-all/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [You can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/you-can-tell-the-date-of-an-old-science-fiction-novel-by-every-word/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“The quickest way is sometimes the longest.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/the-quickest-way-is-sometimes-the-longest/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“They were spells, spelled with words to make worlds, waiting for me, in the pages of books.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/they-were-spells-spelled-with-words-to-make-worlds-waiting-for-me-in/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/finish-what-you-re-writing-whatever-you-have-to-do-to-finish-it/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [What do stars do? They shine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/what-do-stars-do-they-shine/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“What," asked Mr Croup, "do you want?" "What," asked the Marquis de Carabas, a little more rhetorically, "does anyone want?" "Dead things," suggested Mr…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/what-asked-mr-croup-do-you-want-what-asked-the-marquis-de-carabas-a/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [You get on with your own life. Lettie gave it to you. You just have to grow up and try and be worth it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/you-get-on-with-your-own-life-lettie-gave-it-to-you-you-just-have-to/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“Eyes will not see you. Minds will not hold you. Where you are is nothing and nobody”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/eyes-will-not-see-you-minds-will-not-hold-you-where-you-are-is/) [neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) [Explore all 2,526 Neil Gaiman quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) ## More Books quotes > [I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aiden-wilson-tozer/i-think-a-new-world-will-arise-out-of-the-religious-mists-when-we/) [Aiden Wilson Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aiden-wilson-tozer/) > [If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aesop-rock/if-i-had-a-dollar-for-every-time-i-couldn-t-sleep-i-could-buy-a/) [Aesop Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aesop-rock/) > [If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lydia-lunch/if-what-i-write-is-literature-i-guess-you-d-better-emphasize-the/) [Lydia Lunch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lydia-lunch/) > [My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-thompson-walker/my-sentences-got-sharper-and-my-stories-more-efficient-and-i/) [Karen Thompson Walker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-thompson-walker/) > [Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-lang/young-men-especially-in-america-write-to-me-and-ask-me-to-recommend-a/) [Andrew Lang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-lang/) > [“Within the pages of books, I've journeyed to Mandalay, the Milky Way and Santa Fe, without once having to leave my armchair.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-ansbro/within-the-pages-of-books-i-ve-journeyed-to-mandalay-the-milky-way/) [Kevin Ansbro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-ansbro/) > [The Rosary is the book of the blind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fulton-j-sheen/the-rosary-is-the-book-of-the-blind/) [Fulton J. Sheen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fulton-j-sheen/) > [“Tacitus did not write a most dangerous book. His readers made it so.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-k-krebs/tacitus-did-not-write-a-most-dangerous-book-his-readers-made-it-so/) [Christopher K. 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There is nothing like a child who knows more about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/floyd-cooper/i-have-many-who-keep-me-going-i-am-very-fortunate-in-this-sense-there/) [Floyd Cooper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/floyd-cooper/) > [I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/i-think-books-in-which-people-are-really-happy-and-things-are-going/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [It's like the query letter problem that I just mentioned, magnified a hundredfold. You might be good at telling a story, but that doesn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrick-rothfuss/it-s-like-the-query-letter-problem-that-i-just-mentioned-magnified-a/) [Patrick Rothfuss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrick-rothfuss/) > [“Be careful about reading health books. Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/markus-herz/be-careful-about-reading-health-books-some-fine-day-you-ll-die-of-a/) [Markus Herz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/markus-herz/) > [But editors are still the world's readers. And thus the eyes of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsy-lerner/but-editors-are-still-the-world-s-readers-and-thus-the-eyes-of-the/) [Betsy Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsy-lerner/) [Browse all 59,485 Books quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything. And reading is key. There were noises made briefly, a few years ago, about the idea that we were living in a post-literate world, in which the ability to make sense out of written words was somehow redundant, but those days are gone: words are more important than they ever were: we navigate the world with words, and as the world slips onto the web, we need to follow, to communicate and to comprehend what we are reading. People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas, cannot communicate, and translation programs only go so far. The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I’ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy. It’s tosh. It’s snobbery and it’s foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you. Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian “improving” literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant. We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. [from, Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming ]”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Neil Gaiman" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gateway-drug-to-reading-the-drive/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Books" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gateway-drug-to-reading-the-drive/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f5/neil-gaiman-29_books_fiction-has-two-uses-firstly-it-s-a-gate_1653669.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Fiction has two uses. 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