I can hate you more, but I’ll never love you less.
He never reckoned much to schooling and that. He said you could learn most what was worth knowing from keeping your eyes and ears peeled. Best way of learning, he always said, was doing.
One day,” she told us, “you’ll have to leave here and go out into the big world out there and earn your living like everyone else. To do that you need to learn. The more you learn now, the more interesting your life will be.
Magic obeys only the heart of the one who uses it. Your magic would always be a kind magic, because you are kind, I can tell. Please stay and help us.
There’s room for all sorts of magic and miracles in this world – that’s what I think.
You know something, you never know what lonely is until you are really alone, alone all day, alone all night, with no one to talk to.
But look after yourself – there will be great dangers on the way. Remember, the right road is never the easy road.
It is so beautiful but home is home, and home is best.
When you’re young you can’t work out the age of an adult – they’re just quite old, old, or very old.
If I learned anything in this life, I’ve learned that you can’t cling on.
Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I live in his glow.
That’s what sailing is, a dance, and your partner is the sea. And with the sea you never take liberties. You ask her, you don’t tell her. You have to remember always that she’s the leader, not you. You and your boat are dancing to her tune.
You have to understand the sea, he said, to listen to her, to look out for her moods, to get to know her and respect her and love her. Only then can you build boats that feel at home on the sea.
There’s a nobility in his eye, a regal serenity about him. Does he not personify all that men try to be and never can be?
Marry someone who flatters you. Because I’ve written 80 books since ‘War Horse’ but when my wife reads one, all she says is, ‘It’s quite good, but it’s not as good as ‘War Horse,’ is it?’
Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never – pleasurable.
Don’t worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life.
It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.
Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.
Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it’s through writing, drama or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth.
It is the child’s understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They’re still doing it today with modern technology.
One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But what we should also be looking at, and a lot more urgently, is those who fail.