Edward Blishen

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.”

“Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.”

“The dictionary is a closed book to too many.”

“Adolescence is a kind of emotional sea-sickness.”

“The great virtue of biographies is that they are, in their own modest way, sacred texts: they are the latest installment of the great human story.”

“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.”

“The great enemy of language is insincerity.”

“A library is a place where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.”

“To be a teacher is to be a kind of poet.”

“The classroom should be a place of polite argument.”