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if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.

Norton Juster

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Norton Juster
Age: 91 †
Born: 1929
Born: June 2
Died: 2021
Died: March 8
Architect
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Often
Wells
Imaginary
Well
Closed
Real
Ones
Something
Easier
Things
Open
Life
Eyes
Eye

More quotes by Norton Juster

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There are no wrong roads to anywhere.
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There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction.
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I think really good books can be read by anybody.
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Oh dear, all those words again, thought Milo as he climbed into the wagon with Tock and the cabinet members. How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a-- Be very quiet, advised the duke, for it goes without saying.
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Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.
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I never knew words could be so confusing, Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear. Only when you use a lot to say a little, answered Tock. Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day.
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Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.
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He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory.
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Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.
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You must never feel badly about making mistakes.
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Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything.
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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
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And remember, also, added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
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A good book written for children can be read by adults
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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 important way.
Norton Juster
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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
Norton Juster
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A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.
Norton Juster
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...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.
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They all looked very much like the residents of any small valley to which you've never been.
Norton Juster
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Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
Norton Juster