Norton Juster Quotes

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

Words bounce. Words, if you let them, will do what they want to do and what they have to do.

One word is worth a thousand pictures. If it's the right word.

Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.

Reading taught me how to write.

Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer. But why? Why do you choose one set of tools rather than another?

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Saying what we think gives a wider range of conversation than saying what we know.

Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.

If you can talk, you can write.

I can't talk about anything or write about anything if I don't understand it. So a lot of the stuff that I go through and a lot of the time that I spend is understanding.

A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.

The only thing you have to know are your words.

My first language is French. I just love words so much, and in French it feels like I can say whatever I want however I want.

I always prided myself on at least trying to be literate and use the right words, and if the audience didn't get it, then they could go home and look it up.

Words are like untying a corset - you can move into this great space with them.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things.

Anyone who doesn't read doesn't have any business writing.

Words are my life.

Words are powerful. The tongue is powerful. And when you write it down, and record it, and press it up, it's 100 million times more powerful. It's important to utilize our tongue to help people.

There are ways to speak that can transform things, which has less to do with authority but is more about resourcefulness and ingenuity.

If you're ever struggling for something to say, just take a noun and verbalize it. Using simple words in new and interesting ways will creativize your presence.

All people in the world - who are not hermits or mutes - speak words. They speak different languages, but they speak words. They say, "How are you" or "I'm not feeling well" all over the world. These common words - these common elements that we have between us - the writer has to take some verbs and nouns and pronouns and adjectives and adverbs and arrange them in a way that sound fresh.