Kathryn Lasky Quotes

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.

I went to college, but I learned to write by reading - and writing.

I've learned to use big words. Because I'm an avid reader, I can prove myself as a smart and diligent person.

I think the cardinal rule of learning to write is learning to read first. I learned to write by learning to read.

You have to have really wide reading habits and pay attention to the news and just everything that's going on in the world: you need to. If you get this right, then the writing is a piece of cake.

Journalism students need to understand it and need a solid background in the liberal arts, in sociology, economics, literature and language, because they won't get it later on.

I've summarized dozens of books in my literary career; it's become rather second nature.

I'm a good scholar when it comes to reading but a blotting kind of writer when you give me a pen.

To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.

Read as much as you can, and then sit down and write.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

I prefer reading to writing. Reading changes your world view. Writing changes absolutely nothing. Except, of course, when it makes you rich.

One can't write without having read - you have to read before beginning to write - and universities offer a very good opportunity to read.

There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.

I didn't start writing until late high school and then I was just diddling. Mainly I loved to read and my writing was an outgrowth of that.

As for what's the most challenging aspect of teaching, it's convincing younger writers of the importance of reading widely and passionately.

If we were meant to read for enjoyment, would God have created television? Read as it was intended - for exercise. The more you read, the more you expand your - what's the word I'm looking for? - your stockpile of words. You must have a stockpile of words that you can pass along to your children for their stockpile.

As soon as you sit down to write about something you are pressing your nose deeper into the sewer of facts.

I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

The more you read, the better you are at writing, no matter what you're writing. A lot of songwriters miss that and don't see the connection there, and I've always felt like you're more able to communicate if you have a bigger toolbox to work with.

A writer could spend years reading already-published books just to gain a grasp of the historical terrain.

I wasn't very academically inclined, growing up as a child, and the only subject I was good at was English. I had a flair for it, since I came from a literary background.

What I love about research is when I'm having a bad day and I can't write, I'll just research some more, I'll learn some more and I'll have better command of the world of the film.

I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you're trying to be a writer because it's the only apprenticeship we have, it's the only way of learning how to write a story.