Michael Morpurgo Quotes

Adolescents are still children in that they can't yet tell the difference between make believe and fiction.

Kids who are nine, 10 and 11 are pretty sophisticated readers; they know that there isn't always a good outcome every time and that problems don't always have solutions.

Kids under, I'd say, 14 are still maturing; they are still growing. They are still understanding themselves. To hit them with something like 'Roots,' to hit them with this particular period of time, it's important to discuss the matters beyond the program itself.

The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.

All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.

I feel sometimes that in children's books there are more and more grim problems, but I don't know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them.

One stops being a child when one realizes that telling one's trouble does not make it any better.

Life does throw some hard stuff at you as you get older, much harder. But you are more able to deal with things.

The more we shelter children from every disappointment, the more devastating future disappointments will be.

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.

Give your kid some credit for being smart - just because they read about something doesn't mean they will do it.

Children and teens need to explore the dark side as a healthy part of growing. If a child is protected from everything dreadful, he will have no coping mechanisms in place when finally confronted with disaster.

Education should learn from the positive side of gaming - reward, accomplishment, and fun.

Jacqueline Woodson's books are such a gift to parents and children for their poignant subtlety and lyricism and their willingness to let a reader dwell in the pangs of realization that we sometimes try to protect our children from.

I'm a big believer in the complex realities of young people's lives.

When you're a kid, you're just not equipped to deal with some of the stuff that life brings you. It's why you have parents. And then, when you don't, there better be somebody who fills in that gap, or you're going to be rudderless for a while.

I think when you're in your 20s, going from adolescence to about 24, I think your life is a series of emotional storms that you have to weather. Life is more emotional at that time, and you're less equipped to deal with what life throws at you. I always think that if you can get past 24, than life really starts at that point.

Life's not so rocky now. It was very volatile when you're young: you've got no experience. Your sense of disappointment is far greater; your sense of success is overwhelming. And then you've got the emotional conflict within any group that you're not mature enough to deal with until you get older. It levels out.

At times, parents foist their own choices on kids and try to get them to read the classics. But kids have very high filters and don't take to it. At other times, parents simply don't know what books to select for their children and end up giving books that aren't appropriate.

You find it hard to deal with certain things and as you get older it becomes easier.

Philosophy may be defined as the art of asking the right question...awareness of the problem outlives all solutions. The answers are questions in disguise, every new answer giving rise to new questions.

In all that you are living... As the problem flickers, the solution flickers too.

To avoid having bad things happen, learning to manage your anger and to actually share how you really feel about something, and get it behind you is one of the most important aspects of growing up.

Growing up is a process that never ends. It isn't a point you attain so you can say, Hooray, I'm grown up. Some people never grow up. And nobody ever finishes growing. Or shouldn't. If you stop you might as well quit. What I have to tell you is that it never gets any easier. It goes right on being rough forever. But nothing that's easy is worth anything. You ought to have learned that by now. What happens as you keep on growing is that all of a sudden you realize that it's more exciting and beautiful than scary and awful.