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.
Interpretation
Write for the love of it, not out of obligation, and write about what you genuinely care about.
This quote emphasizes the importance of passion and authenticity in writing. Michael Morpurgo suggests that true creativity comes from a place of love and personal connection to the subject, rather than from external pressures or obligations. By encouraging writers to express their feelings and experiences, he advocates for a more genuine and fulfilling approach to the craft.
In practice
This quote could be used in a creative writing workshop to inspire participants to find their authentic voice.
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.
Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.
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.
I didn’t want a completely passive viewer. Art means too much to me. To be able to articulate something visually is really an important thing. I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful
Truly great images make all the other millions of images you look at unimportant. You gotta look at an image and understand it in a nanosecond.
I want work that, possessing as thin a membrane as possible between life and art, foregrounds the question of how the writer solves being alive.
Each period of a civilisation creates an art that is specific in it and which we will never see reborn. To try and revive the principles of art of past centuries can lead only to the production of stillborn works.
We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.
Theoretically, the actor ought to be more sound in mind and body than other people, since he learns to understand the psychological problems of human beings when putting his own passions, his loves, fears, and rages to work in the service of the characters he plays. He will learn to face himself, to hide nothing from himself- and to do so takes AN INSATIABLE CURIOSITY ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.