Why I Began To Write For Children

Why I began to Write for Children
- Isaac Bashevic Singer

• "Children read books, not reviews. They don’t give a hoot about the critics.
• Children don’t read to find their identity.
• They don’t read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation.
• They have no use for psychology.
• They detest sociology.
• They don’t try to understand Kafka or Finnegans Wake.
• They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.
• They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or footnotes.
• When a book is boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority.
• They don’t expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions."

- From his 1978 Nobel banquet speech.

(From the excellent futilitycloset.com)