When I taught, a lot of my students weren't big readers, so they would write something and I realized that they thought it belonged in a book. Like, they didn't know what the inside of a book looked like, you know what I mean?
The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books.
'I don't need very much now,' said the boy, 'just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired. ' 'Well,' said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, "well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest. 'And the boy did. And the tree was happy.
I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.
If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher.
Books?" Ridley looked disgusted. "Carry?
When I was a teenager, I was a voracious reader of crime fiction, but only contemporary books.
The Tiger's Curse Series has everything my heart could desire in a fantasy: exotic locations, two dashing princes, good vs. evil, the promise of danger and adventure lurking around every corner—and did I mention two dashing princes? Warning: these books may cause you to forget anything else exists until you've turned the last enthralling page. And then you'll want to start all over again!
When the book comes out it may hurt you - but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself.
In 2002, Google began an ambitious project to digitize every book in the world. It was intended as a search project: type in a query, and Google would show you snippets. They asked university libraries for books, which they would scan for free. At Harvard we didn't permit them to take works under copyright, but other libraries gave them everything.
The umlaut isn't on my birth certificate. I had this book as a child called Chloe and Maude, and there was an umlaut on the e, and I said, I want that! It's a little flair. Just to confuse people even more.
I teach for the Book Trust, which promotes reading and writing with children.
John Bunyan, author of the classic book the Pilgrim’s Progress, said “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who cannot pay you back. ” Make a decision that you will live to give. Be on the lookout each day for somebody you can bless. Don’t’ live for yourself; learn to give yourself away, and your life will make a difference.
If you take all the marketing books in the world and distill them, the key to marketing is hope. People buy hope, the hope that you will help them solve a problem or achieve a goal.
I believe in communication; books communicate ideas and make bridges between people.
Let the grass die. I let almost all of my indoor plants die from neglect while I was writing the book. There are all kinds of ways to live. You can take your choice. You can keep a tidy house, and when St. Peter asks you what you did with your life, you can say, I kept a tidy house, I made my own cheese balls.
Philately is normally a boys' hobby but for some reason it was in vogue at my junior school. Between the ages of eight and ten I collected avidly. I'd pore over my Stanley Gibbons book, obsessively checking my collection's value. I always hoped I'd stumble across a really valuable one, a Penny Black or an Inverted Jenny, but it wasn't to be.
Religion embarrasses the commentators. It is offbounds. An editor of the old Life magazine once assigned me a book on religion with remark that I was the only 'religious nut' - his term for a believer - in his stable of regular reviewers.
Clear, crisp, refreshingly sensible, and as entertaining as it is enlightening, The Abs Diet will reward its readers handsomely. There are few 'diet books' that I am willing to endorse; I endorse this one enthusiastically. If you have an abdomen, get this book!
I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.
