Walter Dean Myers Quotes

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

When I began to read, I began to exist

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

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.

Reading is not optional.

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

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

Think about all the tomorrows of your life.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I like people who take responsibility for their lives.

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.

If anyone could look into my head See or feel the dread that has captured Me or see within this sad, unhappy brain They would only turn away Turn away.

Yeah, that's funny, huh?...Something hurts you real bad and you get used to it. Like being hurt becomes part of who you are.

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.

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.

Each time I think there is no place lower to go, I find that there is at least one place that will mess you up worse than you were.

I want young people to be hesitant to glorify war and to demand of their leaders justification for the sacrifices they ask of our citizens.

I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy.

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.

I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott.

the beast is the monster that destroys your dream

I know what falling off the cliff means. I know from being considered a very bright kid to being considered like a moron and dropping out of school.

Children have adopted a consumerist attitude - I dare you to entertain me.

That's what's wrong with women. They want you to wait for them until they get ready and then they don't even tell you how they feel.

I talk to myself out loud at times, and feel embarrassed when people overhear me.

Can you become The hope I need? Can you help me be More than it is written in my future Or past? Is there another me to find?

Looks to me like you've been making garbage for a while and dragging it with you. Now you need to get out of here, and that garbage is weighing you down.

I write in a small office at home.

I couldn't speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that sense.

America believes what's good for us is good for the world. It's very difficult to understand that that's not necessarily true.

As a child I wanted to be a professional athlete or lawyer.

New York is my favorite city.

As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart - often for years - until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.

I admired the work ethic of the cowboys I read about. The idea of these young people taking on this much responsibility was impressive. I would like modern readers to have an appreciation of this.

he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't guilty.

Idiots don't know they're idiots, which is unfortunate.

My life is not packaged, Not tidy. There are leftover strands and jagged Edges that cut even my friends.

Each generation seems to invent its own reasons for war.

What some people wanted was sometimes too hard to get, and the stress of trying was sometimes too hard to deal with... Maybe doing well in life was just too hard for some people.

I wrote for magazines. I wrote adventure stuff, I wrote for the 'National Enquirer,' I wrote advertising copy for cemeteries.

What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn't kill Mr. Nesbitt.

The movie is more real in so many ways than the life I am leading. No, that’s not true. I just desperately wish this was only a movie.

If you know you don't have a win, then there's no use for you being in the game.

On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again

But now, like a fallen sparrow On a golden chain, I'm forever bound in shadow, A prisoner to my pain.

When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat.