Writing Children's Books Quotes

You have to write the book that wants to be written.

If you are writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer.

I keep writing children’s books, I keep making children’s books, because I still have them inside of me.

My freshman English professor at Kent State University in 1984 told me I was a good writer, and she loved all the silly pictures I drew in my notebook. She said I should try writing children's books, and so I did.

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.

In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and - SNAP - the job's a game!

The trick in writing children's books is to set up danger, mystery and excitement on page one. Force the kid to turn the page . . . Then in the middle of each chapter there's a dramatic point of excitement, and at chapter's end, a cliffhanger.

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.

The more he gave away, the more delighted he became.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly.

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all.

I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

I don't want to write for adults. I want to write for readers who can perform miracles. Only children perform miracles when they read.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.