Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the intelligence and emotional capacity of animals, suggesting we have a responsibility to care for them.
Michael Morpurgo's quote highlights the perspective that animals possess qualities such as sentience and intelligence, similar to those we recognize in children. He calls upon humans to acknowledge their duty to care for animals with the same gravity as that for vulnerable beings, emphasizing the ethical obligation we have to ensure their well-being and treat them with respect.
In practice
During a speech on animal rights, I could use this quote to emphasize our responsibility to protect vulnerable beings.
There is the myth that writing books for children is easier than writing books for grownups, whereas we know that truly great books for children are works of genius, whether it's 'Alice in Wonderland' or the 'Gruffalo' or 'Northern Lights.' When it's a great book, it's a great book, whether it's for children or not.
Strange questions are the more interesting ones. Children by and large don't try to trip you up... they want to find out how you do this funny thing that you do... if they've loved a story they love to know how it started.
Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.
It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn't inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.
The most important thing is to live an interesting life. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open. Talk to people and visit interesting places, and don't forget to ask questions. To be a writer you need to drink in the world around you so it's always there in your head.
He was alone in the darkness once more, but the darkness became brighter and brighter until it was burning like the sun.
Those who are acquainted with the literature of India will remember a beautiful old story about this extreme charity, how a whole family, as related in the Mahâbhârata, starved themselves to death and gave their last meal to a beggar. This is not an exaggeration, for such things still happen.
One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.
there was no crime in unconscious plagiarism; that I committed it everyday, that he committed it everyday, that every man alive on earth who writes or speaks commits it every day and not merely once or twice but every time he open his mouth… there is nothing of our own in it except some slight change born of our temperament, character, environment, teachings and associations
What is true stillness? Stillness in movement.
Emotion is primarily about nothing and much of it remains about nothing to the end.
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