If you want to be a good writer, you need to do a lot of reading. But according to Sidney Fleischman, practice is just as important. Not all of your writing will be good, but you’re flexing new muscles.
Some of the letters author Norton Juster receives are funny, others deeply thoughtful. And many allow him to reconnect with a child’s perception of the world.
Author Norton Juster says that the major work of a writer is to look out the window with a blank mind. Story ideas come and he lets them sit for awhile.
Author Norton Juster is wary of lesson plans that seek to show children what a book or poem is about. Kids need to discover their own responses to literature.
From his childhood, author Norton Juster remembers the Oz books, folk and fairy tales, the Sunday newspaper, and the big Yiddish and Russian novels his parents had at home.
For author Norton Juster a random conversation with a 10 year old boy about “the biggest number there is” was one of the seeds that helped The Phantom Tollbooth to grow.
