Russell Freedman Quotes

My earliest, most impactful encounter with a book was when I was seven and awoke early on Christmas morning to find Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' in my stocking. I had never been so excited by the sight of a book - and have possibly never been since!

Ideally, we should like to define a good book as one which 'permits, invites, or compels' good reading

I will say the most raw joy I've experienced reading has probably come from the times I've been reading with my little boys.

Our hope is that the elementary reading of comics will lead to the joy of reading good books.

Because reading is one of the joys of life, and once you begin, you can't stop, and you've got so many stories to look forward to.

A library book, I imagine, is a happy book.

Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

I had started to feel that somewhere in the second half of the 20th century, the idea of page-turning as a good thing had been lost. You were getting books that were the equivalent of absolutely beautifully prepared dishes of food that didn't taste like anything much.

Children's literature is one of my joys, and it's also my mental comfort food.

I think really good books can be read by anybody.

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids.

I write out of gratitude for all the books I have loved over the years.

When I get lost in a book, it's just, like, magical!

One of the joys of reading is the ability to plug into the shared wisdom of mankind.

So there you have it, a lifetime of first smelling the books, they all smell wonderful, reading the books, loving the books, and remembering the books.

The only thing I would want to say is that storytelling is ancient; it's something that everybody does. Kids mustn't be in awe of it. Reading should be a joy - fun, fun, fun - not a responsibility, not something you do because society demands it, but something you do because it's a pleasure.

The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.

Children's books aren't textbooks. Their primary purpose isn't supposed to be "Pick this up and it will teach you this." It's not how literature should be. You probably do learn something from every book you pick up, but it might be simply how to laugh.

The joy of reading can take you so many different places. In addition to intelligence and stretching your mind, I just think reading is so crucial in terms of being a well-rounded person.

Even today, I hunt for the fabulous books that will change me utterly. I find myself happiest in the middle of a book which I forget that I am reading, but am instead immersed in a made-up life lived at the highest pitch.

I've just surfaced from spending several days in a state of rapture: I was reading a book... I felt alive and engaged and positively brilliant, bursting with ideas, brimming with memories of other books I've loved.

It's such a wonderful feeling to watch a child discover that reading is a marvelous adventure rather than a chore. I know that many writers for children say they do not write specifically with a child audience in mind ... This isn't true for me. I am very aware of my audience. Sometimes I can almost see them out there reacting as I write. Sometimes I think, 'Oh, you're going to like this part.

This is not about money or anything other than the pleasure of reading for people who want to read it.