Dr Seuss On Writing

In this post, we’ve shared advice from the iconic American author, Dr Seuss on writing. Here are some tips from Dr Seuss on writing.

Dr Seuss, who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel, was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist. He published more than 60 children’s books including Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat. Over 600 million copies of his children’s books have been sold and they have been translated into more than 20 languages. His works have been adapted for television, film, and theatre. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award twice.

Six Dr Seuss Quotes

1. You can fool an adult into thinking he’s reading profundities by sprinkling your prose with purple passages. But with a kid you can’t get away with that. Two sentences in a children’s book is the equivalent of two chapters in an adult book. For a 60-page book I’ll probably write 500 pages. I think that’s why it works. I winnow out.
2. Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.
3. Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humour, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humour has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.
4. You have to do tricks with pacing, alternate long sentences with short, to keep it alive and vital. Virtually every page is a cliff-hanger—you’ve got to force them to turn it.
5. You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
6. I tend to basically exaggerate in life, and in writing, it’s fine to exaggerate. I really enjoy overstating for the purpose of getting a laugh. It’s very flattering, that laugh, and at the same time it gives pleasure to the audience and accomplishes more than writing very serious things. For another thing, writing is easier than digging ditches. Well, actually that’s an exaggeration. It isn’t.