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.

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.

Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you'll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you have more of it.

Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.

But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

I was always surrounded by expectation from the very first race I ran as a 5-year-old.

I also want to draw attention to the responsibilities that people have to live up to their election promises and to live up to the votes that were cast by the people of Wales, in the General Election, in the expectation that we would deliver this promise.

Where is the expectation of privacy in the commission of a crime?

I believe that this is not only the view of the people on both sides of the Strait. It is also the common expectation of the US, Japan and the international community.

We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation.

A desert is a place without expectation.

Life is largely a matter of expectation.

An expectation is a future object, recognised as belonging to me.

A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.

Kids will reach whatever expectation you set for them.

Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it.

I had no expectation that the Prince would offer me the unprecedented and unfettered access to the original and entirely untapped sources on which this biography is based.

Expectation is the root of all heartache.

Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

To compete in a global economy, our students must continue their education beyond high school. To make this expectation a reality, we must give students the tools they need to succeed, including the opportunity to take a college entrance exam.

I think ultimately if you have a very high expectation of your audience and you know exactly what it is you're trying to express through the medium of film, there will always be an audience for you.

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.