Norton Juster (born June 2, 1929) is an American academic, architect, and popular writer. He is best known as an author of children's books, notably for The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line. Read full biography of Norton Juster →
I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.
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... →
People always ask about my influences, and they cite a bunch of people I've never heard of.
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... →
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... →
A good book written for children can be read by adults.
I think really good books can be read by anybody.
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.
There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction.
When you're very young and you learn something - a fact, a piece of information, whatever - it doesn't connect to anything.
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... →
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... →
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... →