Mark Haddon Quotes

If a child wants to read 'Twilight' over Middlemarch, they should be encouraged - the important thing is to get them reading in the first place.

Every generation likes to think that children don't read as much as they used to when they were young! You listen to some adults saying they were going around reading 'Ulysses' when they were seven or eight! I think children are voracious readers if you give them the right books and if you make those books accessible to them.

The funny thing is, I'm not really a big reader, not a big fan of books in the first place.

I think it's so important for young readers to find a book or series that ignites their passion for reading, especially boys, whose interest in reading wanes as they grow older.

I believe we should spend less time worrying about the quantity of books children read and more time introducing them to quality books that will turn them on to the joy of reading and turn them into lifelong readers.

It's hard recommending books for kids, and a huge responsibility. If you get it wrong, they don't tell you they hate that particular book, they tell you they hate reading.

I read a great deal as a child. A lot of children go through a phase of reading in a literally voracious way. It is their primary imaginative activity. Maybe that's an experience which is not so common any more with the presence of television in every home.

This is what I believe is most important: getting good books into the hands of kids - books that will make them want to say, 'Wow, that was great. Give me another one to read.'

I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one. I would do anything to avoid reading. In my case, it wasn't until I was 13 and discovered the 'Lord of the Rings' that I learned to love reading.

I'm a painfully slow reader. And to this day, I mean, I love reading, and I'm very careful - very selective about what I read because I don't read very fast and, therefore, not a great deal.

In a sense, there's a great truth to that, but, also I was a great reader.

I'm not a natural reader but there are books I'll read and read again.

I loved to read, and I think any child who loves to read will read anything, including the back of the cereal box, which I did every morning.

I have never met an author who did not read voraciously as a child.

Kids say the No. 1 reason they don't read more is that they can't find books they like. Freedom of choice is a key to getting them motivated and excited.

The best way to get kids reading more is to give them books that they'll gobble up - and that will make them ask for another.

As a writer, you should care about reluctant readers. You want these kids to feel like books are amazing and cool and that they're an escape.

I don't believe in lecturing people. It's much more effective to present reading as a fun, rewarding pastime.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.

Unfortunately, a lot of kids don't read anymore. I don't know what we can do about that.

I don't remember being taught to read, and by the time I was seven years old, I had read a very great many books, good, bad, and indifferent.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

I was a good boy in high school, and I read for English class, and I vaguely remember reading, as a kid, 'Choose Your Own Adventure' stuff, but I didn't really read for pleasure.

I think children love reading, and they will make time for it if we put the right books into their hands. And I hope I get the chance to keep being one of the people that writes them.

Of course, I've always read. I started when I was four years old and just didn't stop. I read all the time.