quotes

“If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”

“I don't write for children, I write for people. Once a writer starts talking down to kids, he's lost. Kids can pick up on that kind of thing.”

“I feel my greatest accomplishment was getting rid of Dick and Jane and encouraging students to approach reading as a pleasure, not a chore.”

“I had no ability as a novelist. I spent all my time trying to get rid of extraneous words and boiling the thing down to the essentials. But a novelist's technique is putting those extraneous, nonessential things back in.”

“Once in a while, I have to write something in an adult magazine. I get so frustrated; I wish I could get rid of all the garbage of excess words; I could draw what I want to say in a second.”

“I'm honest enough with myself to know I wouldn't have written the Great American Novel, but I think I could have created some fine paintings.”

“I don't like audiences. I prefer to make my mistakes in private.”

“I enjoy making a statement, but I don't think one has to always do so to feel worthwhile.”

“Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I'm doing, I always tell myself, 'You can do better than this.'”

“Let me think about it."[When asked on his deathbed if he had any final thoughts]”

“All of my books are based on truth, an exaggerated truth.”

“You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

“In the interest of commerce, there's a happy ending. The other ending is unacceptable."[On his book You're Only Old Once]”

“I have a feeling if I could stay out of hospitals, I might live forever.”

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.”

“You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em." (When asked about having children of his own.)”

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”