As ever, Morpurgo's warmth and humanity suffuse a story of courage, love and hope.

Not every child takes instantly to books like a duck to water, but I don’t believe there are children who hate books. There are just children who haven’t yet found the right books for them.

Familiarity breeds sentiment before contempt.

Every profession is an island whose inhabitants earn a precarious living by taking in each other’s washing.

Mostly, what people mean by love is laziness.

There was a certain usefulness in having a husband whom most people could barely tolerate: it deflected envy, for one thing.

It’s all biology. If it weren’t for two thousand years of the Christian tradition we wouldn’t think of pretending otherwise…Romance is the true opiate of the masses.

Some people, perhaps those with more dignity and less rage gnawing at the roots of their being, are nicer as failures, For me, it was like descending a deep pit that had no bottom

That is the worst thing about despair: it is not constant, any more than love is.

Very happy or unhappy, people disappear.

You know the only rule you need to know to get on in this country? ‘Never complain, never explain.

Focus is the ability to say no to the GOOD so you can fulfill the yes you said to the GREAT.

Rejection. Rejection. You can't handle rejection!

It's very important to older male homosexuality in Los Angeles to have a pool, so that cute boys will come to your house and swim around in the pool.

P.P.S. AND YOU CAN TALK. "Just say the word." JUST SAY THE WORD? What kind of expression is that? WHAT WORD WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SAY ANYWAY? MORON? Letter from Emily to Charles.

I'd just find a story in Canada and come and do it. Combine harvester banger - actually I've done that: banger racing up in Red Deer [in Alberta, for his 1998 doc series Extreme Machines].

If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole World would be clean.

People kill what they fear. They burned, and drowned, and hanged those they saw as witches, the devil's servants: the wise women and the cunning men, the unfortunate, the lost and the strange

Diplomacy has been exhausted .. Continued instability in the Balkans threatens important U.S. national interests,.

The more you focus on control, the more likely you're working on a project that's striving to deliver something of relatively minor value.

O Day after day we can't help growing older. Year after year spring can't help seeming younger. Come let's enjoy our winecup today, Nor pity the flowers fallen.