Quotes from Norton Juster

And Milo, full of thoughts and questions, curled up on the pages of tomorrow's music and eagerly awaited the dawn.

It's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.

so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.

Liberty is not a license for chaos.

The dumbing down of America is proceeding apace.

So many things are potable just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

The dumbing down of America is proceeding apace. Juster's allegorical monsters have become all too real. The Demons of Ignorance, the Gross Exaggeration (whose wicked teeth were made "only to mangle the truth"), and the shabby Threadbare Excuse are inside the walls of the Kingdom of Wisdom, while the Gorgons of Hate and Malice, the Overbearing Know-it-all, and most especially the Triple Demons of Compromise are already established in high office all over the world.

Nothing really interested him—least of all the things that should have.

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens

Every time he thought about it he became more convinced that there was nothing that was really true and even less in which to believe. So it was simpler not to care about anything, for in that way he was never disappointed.

Well, almost nothing, or depending on your generosity of spirit, hardly anything, for he could hitch an ox and plough a furrow straight or thatch a roof or hone his scythe until the edge was bright and sharp or tell by a sniff of the breeze what the day would bring or with a glance when a grape was sweet and ready.

You'd have to say Robert plus John equals four, and if the four's name were Albert, things would be hopeless.

T)he most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between.

If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.

He sat up quickly, pulled the book out from under him, put on a green eyeshade, and waited with his pen poised in the air.

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.

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.

Sometimes I find the best way of getting from one place to another is simply to erase everything and begin again.

The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.

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.

Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or lots of other things? You'd have to say Robert plus John equals four, and if the four's name were Albert, things would be hopeless.

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.