Then Morris Gleitzman Quotes & Sayings

Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least once — Morris Gleitzman

Halfway through primary school, I realised that I was not as physically strong or fearless as many kids. So, in situations of conflict, I quickly learned that it worked better for me to get out of situations or maybe kind of, you know, prevail in a conflict situation by using humour than by trying to punch somebody out. — Morris Gleitzman

My capacity for humour may have come largely from my father - he liked to entertain people, make people laugh. — Morris Gleitzman

We may not be in Manchester but we will always be united — Morris Gleitzman

Step-parenting and being a step-sibling presents a lot of exciting opportunities. When families break up and re-form, there may be less order, less certainty, and a bit more trauma involved, but kids can end up having half-a-dozen parent figures. — Morris Gleitzman

I was named after my Jewish grandfather who left Poland early in the 20th century. What I knew from an early age was that he had lived most of his life in England, his Jewish wife had died, and he married a non-Jewish woman who was my grandmother. — Morris Gleitzman

I would never write stories with only despair and defeat and the dark side of life. — Morris Gleitzman

Melbourne is my type of city, much more so than Sydney. — Morris Gleitzman

When I did finally live in the Dandenongs, the mountain ash forests became an important part of my life. — Morris Gleitzman

I prefer watching people on a screen, and I've had the most pleasurable people-watching experiences at the Palace Cinema in Balwyn. — Morris Gleitzman

I think, to be a successful author, you've got to be part recluse and part show-off. — Morris Gleitzman

I like to write stories where young people have a strong feeling about something being fair or unfair, right or wrong, cruel or kind, and they act on the basis of that - often in the face of the prevailing limits of behaviour. — Morris Gleitzman

At around nine or 10 years of age, young people start to decide for themselves what's moral or not, and that's why I like writing for that age group so much. — Morris Gleitzman

Children know when they are being sold a sanitised version of the world, and I think that's a betrayal of the relationship between author and reader. — Morris Gleitzman

It's our potential for good stuff I'm most interested in exploring, but that has most meaning when juxtaposed with things that can go wrong. — Morris Gleitzman

I think the best writers use the language they use every day when they talk to friends. When we talk to each other, we tend to talk in short grabs rather than in long flowing sentences. I think that's not a bad way to write. — Morris Gleitzman

I discovered you can get closer to a character's thoughts and feelings in a book than in a film. — Morris Gleitzman

The leader gives me another hard stare. He's not very old, but he's going bald. His wispy pale hair looks like it's trying to get as far away as it can from his angry face. — Morris Gleitzman

If we get caught up in a story, it's because we've started to care about the characters, and that can only happen if we've moved beneath the surface. — Morris Gleitzman

I used to get stuck trying to find the first sentence of a story, then I realised that it was often because I didn't know what problem a character was facing in the story. As soon as I did, I could have the character trying to do something about it or have the problem whack him between the eyes. — Morris Gleitzman

Children have limited power to shape their own lives, but when they can experiment with possibilities through books, their optimism can be recharged and kept alive. — Morris Gleitzman

He can do it any time he wants,' says Zelda, hugging me from the other side. 'Any time he sees a Nazi, he can just do a poo. — Morris Gleitzman

Everybody deserves something good in there life atleast once — Morris Gleitzman

I like the idea of young readers using my stories as a sort of moral gym, where they can flex and develop their newly developed moral muscle. — Morris Gleitzman

I've always been interested in setting my stories against a big event, the importance of which my younger readers are slowly becoming aware of as they move into their teens. — Morris Gleitzman

Boys, particularly, like stories where they can have images in their imagination, where they can go to scary places and experiment with what can happen. — Morris Gleitzman

Because kids are physically smaller, there's an assumption by people who haven't read a kids' book for a long time that their ideas and themes and problems and ambitions must be commensurately smaller and less important. I would venture that sometimes the opposite is true. — Morris Gleitzman

I wrote stories as a kid just for myself. One day, some of the kids in my class found some of my stories in my bag, and I was deeply embarrassed until I realised they enjoyed reading them. — Morris Gleitzman

Kids who are nine, 10 and 11 are pretty sophisticated readers; they know that there isn't always a good outcome every time and that problems don't always have solutions. — Morris Gleitzman

Kids aren't political, but around 10 years old, they are beginning to develop the moral grounding that might later, in their teens, develop into their first real political perspectives. — Morris Gleitzman

A little hope goes a long way. — Morris Gleitzman

Barney said that everybody deserves to have something good in their life at least once. I have. More than once. — Morris Gleitzman