Gore Vidal Quotes

I grew up being very interested in Greek mythology because my mum read to my sister and I.

First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

Every child growing up will look to their parents, my mother and my father. My grandmother lived with us. I picked up quite a bit of family lore and history from her, which was interesting.

A solitary child growing up in Africa, you're really quite dependent on books.

I didn't have picture books - there weren't many around when I was a child.

When I was young, my parents had a library in our living room. I was always free to browse and read.

I was just so intrigued with good stories from the time I was a little girl. When my parents would take us out to dinner, I would bring a book along. And they were perfectly happy with that.

I have three kids, so children's literature is a big part of my life.

I can't imagine my life without books. My father was an electrical engineer, and my mother was a public school teacher. Books were an integral part of my childhood.

My father's mother really had a profound influence on me. She literally began her day with an hour of reading. But the most fundamental impact was education.

I was reading 'The Prophet' on my own when I was 10 years old.

'Colonel Roosevelt' is compelling reading, and Morris a brilliant biographer who practices his art at the highest level.

I was born and brought up in Gurgaon to a middle class family. My father, now retired, worked with the revenue department, and my mother is a housewife. I have two siblings who are both married and have kids. But I was always interested in doing something apart from studies.

I grew up in a family that was always talking about politics.

May books and nature be their early joy!

I grew up kissing books and bread.

I do think, where would kids be if it weren't for you and for the good pediatricians, and for the good parents? I passionately believe in sitting a child on your lap and tracing the lines of the book with your finger, and they can read before they know they can, if you bother enough. I did it with my kids, and they're doing it with their kids now.

My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings. And a favorite book as a child? Growing up, it was 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' - I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said 'don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself.' So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'that's better.'

Well, it looks like John Boehner will be the new Speaker of the House. He is the son of a bartender, one of 12 children. He grew up in a two room home with just one bathroom, worked his way through school, became the first person in his family to graduate from college. And, sadly, fell in with the wrong crowd and wound up in Congress.

Anything can become a children's book if you give it to a child...Children are actually the best (and worst) audience for literature because they have no patience with pretence.

I was a book-y child. I was much more book-y than dark.

My father gave me free run of his library. When I think of my boyhood, I think in terms of the books I read.

On Christmas morning when I was a child, my mother would leave a book wrapped at the foot of the bed, which was a hint that Santa had come. It was also her way of keeping us in bed a little longer before we went downstairs. So I've always associated books with happiness and gifts. And they are. I can't get enough of them.

Some people may contend that there is no image more charming that a child holding a puppy or kitten. But for me that's a distant second. When I see a child clutching a book... to his or her tiny bosom, I'm moved. Children can possess a book in a way they can never possess a video game, a TV show, or a Darth Vader doll. A book comes alive when they read it. They give it life themselves by understanding it.

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.