But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance.

There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction.

It was really written as most, I think, books are by writers - for themselves. There was something that just had to be written, in a way that it had to be written. If you know what I mean.

When you're very young and you learn something - a fact, a piece of information, whatever - it doesn't connect to anything.

People always ask about my influences, and they cite a bunch of people I've never heard of.

A good book written for children can be read by adults.

But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance.

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.

And when I'm writing, I write a lot anyway. I might write pages and pages of conversation between characters that don't necessarily end up in the book, or in the story I'm working on, because they're simply my way of getting to know the characters.

I think kids slowly begin to realize that what they're learning relates to other things they know. Then learning starts to get more and more exciting.

One of the problems you have when you read with kids is that once they like something they want you to read it a hundred times.

I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth.

I think really good books can be read by anybody.

The only other thing which I think is important is: Don't write a book or start a book with the expectation of communicating a message in a very important way.

I remember when I was a kid in school and teachers would explain things to me about what I read, and I'd think, Where did they get that? I didn't read that in there. Later you look at it and think, That's kind of an interesting idea.

Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected.

We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don't care if they make sense or nonsense.

If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.

There are no wrong roads to anywhere.

Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.

Every sunrise gives you a new beginning and a new ending. Let this morning be a new beginning to a better relationship and a new ending to the bad memories. It's an opportunity to enjoy life, breathe freely, think and love. Be grateful for this beautiful day.

It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.

The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland.

I thought in terms of the enthusiasm of doing it. I didn't think about whether I was ready.

My strength is my enthusiasm.

I think the biggest difficulty is that when I'm here in America, there's a necessity of using English, so I really have a great sense of really wanting to learn, but unfortunately when I head back to Japan, the necessity vanishes and so does my enthusiasm about learning.

There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

I wouldn't want the pressure of a Six Feet Under or the pressure of improvising like Curb Your Enthusiasm.

If you have enthusiasm, you have a very dynamic, effective companion to travel with you on the road to Somewhere.

To fail is a natural consequence of trying, To succeed takes time and prolonged effort in the face of unfriendly odds. To think it will be any other way, no matter what you do, is to invite yourself to be hurt and to limit your enthusiasm for trying again.

Enthusiasm is that temper of the mind in which the imagination has got the better of the judgment.

Accordingly the Northern races of Europe found their inspiration in the Bible; and the enthusiasm for it has not yet quite faded away.

Martyrdom was the price of enthusiasm for acting.

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.

As always, the British especially shudder at the latest American vulgarity, and then they embrace it with enthusiasm two years later.

It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.

One must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others.

Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.

The Department of Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins was founded and directed by Tom Pollard, an engaging young scientist with remarkable energy and enthusiasm.

I didn't only have a perceptual problem, I was also so nervous and so upset. The process just didn't work. I lost enthusiasm for school and I flunked second grade. The teachers said I was lazy.

Go into something because you really like it, and then do it with a drive and enthusiasm so that it isn't work.

There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm.

Faked enthusiasm is worse than bad acting - it is bad acting with the intent to deceive.

A salesman minus enthusiasm is just a clerk.

It's been the most creatively liberating thing I've ever done and so I'm bringing some of that mad enthusiasm to Marvel for the next couple of years as they let me loose on some Marvel Universe titles you'll be hearing about soon.

I have always looked upon alchemy in natural philosophy to be like enthusiasm in divinity, and to have troubled the world much to the same purpose.