Walter Dean Myers Quotes

Quotes about:

• When I began to read, I began to exist

  Walter Dean Myers

  49 Copy quote

• Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?

  Walter Dean Myers

  Children, Book, Common Humanity

  "Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?" by Walter Dean Myers, www.nytimes.com. March 15, 2014.

  60 Copy quote

• We all think we're different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Thinking, Different, Ends

  8 Copy quote

• Cutting people out of your life is easy, keeping them in is hard.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Friendship, Cutting, People

  Walter Dean Myers (1996). “Slam!”, p.121, Scholastic Inc.

  32 Copy quote

• Think about all the tomorrows of your life.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Thinking, Tomorrow

  19 Copy quote

• We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Reading, Kids, Needs

  19 Copy quote

• It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken

  Walter Dean Myers

  Temptation, Hard Life, Sometimes

  16 Copy quote

• We need to tell young people that America was built by men and women of all colors and that the future of this country is dependent on the participation of all of our citizens.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Country, Men, America

  "An Interview With Walter Dean Myers About The Journal of Joshua Loper". Interview with Linda M. Pavonetti and Richard F. Abrahamson, www.scholastic.com.

  25 Copy quote

• It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . . guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and indeed are.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Book, People, Needs

  18 Copy quote

• Writers do not write what they know. They write what they can imagine.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Writing, Imagine, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• Everything in life is made up...You make up that you are happy. You make up that you are sad. You make up that you are in love. If you don't make up your own life, who's going to make it up for you? It's bad enough when you die and everybody can make up their own stories about you. —Mr. Hooft

  Walter Dean Myers

  Stories, Life Is, Enough

  23 Copy quote

• You cannot live this life anymore without the ability to read.

  Walter Dean Myers

  This Life, Ability

  "The Importance of Literacy: A Q & A With Author Walter Dean Myers". Interview with Earl Martin Phalen, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 10, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Writing, People, Want

  13 Copy quote

• Sometimes when things get hard, we tend to set our sights on what's hard, that difficult thing that keeps us upset, and we turn our back on our strengths.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Sight, Upset, Sometimes

  11 Copy quote

• Reading is not optional.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Reading, Optional

  Walter Dean Myers (2013). “Tags”, p.18, Harper Collins

  23 Copy quote

• the beast is the monster that destroys your dream

  Walter Dean Myers

  Dream, Monsters, Beast

  7 Copy quote

• I think it's difficult for young people to acknowledge being smart, to knowledge being a reader. I see kids who are embarrassed to read books. They're embarrassed to have people see them doing it.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Smart, Book, Kids

  "To Do Well In Life, You Have To 'Read Well'". "Morning Edition" with David Greene, www.npr.org. January 10, 2012.

  6 Copy quote

• We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Reading, Exercise, Wonderful

  19 Copy quote

• I had seen the ballet of Swan Lake as a child but it was as an adult, when I saw a production featuring Erik Bruhn, that I first noticed how significant a part the ever-present threat of violence played. This juxtaposition of great beauty and grace with a backdrop of pure evil stayed with me for years.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Children, Lakes, Swans

  18 Copy quote

• They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can’t kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Punishment, Matter, Shoelaces

  9 Copy quote

• I was teased if I brought my books home. I would take a paper bag to the library and put the books in the bag and bring them home. Not that I was that concerned about them teasing me - because I would hit them in a heartbeat. But I felt a little ashamed, having books.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Book, Home, Library

  4 Copy quote

• I like people who take responsibility for their lives.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Responsibility, People, Taking Responsibility

  9 Copy quote

• I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Writing, Stories

  20 Copy quote

• What I do with my books is to create windows to my world that all may peer into. I share the images, the feelings and thoughts, and, I hope, the delight.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Book, Feelings, Peers

  7 Copy quote

• But in the end, we learn we can forgive most people. The cushion of mortality makes their wrongdoing seem less dark, and whatever roads they traveled seem less foolhardy.

  Walter Dean Myers

  Dark, People, Forgiving

  16 Copy quote

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