Clifton Fadiman Quotes

I always imagine that if I met Dr. Seuss, he would be very similar to Crispin Glover.

Peter Rabbit, for all its gentle tininess, loudly proclaims that no story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it is not a work of imagination.

When I was growing up, Dr. Seuss was really my favorite. There was something about the lyrical nature and the simplicity of his work that really hit me.

You see, I was told stories, we were all told stories as kids in Nigeria. We had to tell stories that would keep one another interested, and you weren't allowed to tell stories that everybody else knew. You had to dream up new ones.

I think that's what fiction writing is actually all about. It's about trying to solve problems in creative ways.

When I was 14 years old, I was crazy about Dr. Seuss. I loved the words he made up, and I just thought, 'Well, if he can make up words, then I can make up words.'

You know, I have a deep, deep affinity for Dr. Seuss.

I discovered writing children's books was a way to keep living in my imagination like a child. So I wrote a number of books before I started 'Magic Tree House.' Then, once I got that, I never looked back because I could be somewhere different in every single book.

If you would ask my mom what books I liked growing up, I liked Dr. Seuss.

You have to love Dr. Seuss to take on the responsibility of conveying his work in animation or any medium.

I grew up with probably three different authors having a seminal influence on my childhood, Dr. Seuss being one and Maurice Sendak being another.

Most of the books I remember from my childhood were Dr. Seuss-type books. They were fun to read, but there wasn't a real story behind them.

For the very young, there's nothing better than Mother Goose and anything by Dr. Seuss for the rhythms and language.

What I feel responsible for is, if my name is on a comic, I want it to be the best-written comic that I can possibly do. I want it to include some new things we haven't seen before, new story ideas, new characters. Quality, quality art, all those kinds of things.

I grew up in a haunted house, reading Dr. Seuss.

Green Eggs and Ham' is fire.

Imagination makes us shape better stories, sure, but it also allows us to multiply possibilities.

All fiction comes from a little bit of reality, otherwise it would have no relevance. The fun is in innovation, take something real like this fair, and make it something larger than life.

I grew up with probably three different authors having a seminal influence on my childhood, Dr. Seuss being one and Maurice Sendak being another. That was my parents, who exposed me to their stories. That's how I was introduced to the whole idea of not just reading, but storytelling in general.

And that is a story that no one can beat, When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.

I just think, as a species, what we [people] enjoy most is creation and creativity, and telling stories is an extension of expressing all the thoughts and ideas that we have inside of ourselves.

Everything in the world was about creativity: belief and creation. Storytelling was the essence of both.

You may be surprised to know that growing up, I wanted to be a writer of children's books.

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.

The best parts of any story to me are the unexpected things, and we have really imaginative, smart writers - I can't wait to see what they make with the ingredients they have on hand.