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If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

Beverly Cleary

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Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Book
Writing
Shelves
Write

More quotes by Beverly Cleary

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I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.
Beverly Cleary
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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
Beverly Cleary
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I was an only child I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
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Children want to do what grownups do.
Beverly Cleary
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I am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
Beverly Cleary
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Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.
Beverly Cleary
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Ramona stepped back into her closet, slid the door shut, pressed an imaginary button, and when her imaginary elevator had made its imaginary descent, stepped out onto the real first floor and raced a real problem. Her mother and father were leaving for Parents' Night.
Beverly Cleary
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Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary
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One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.
Beverly Cleary
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Neither the mouse nor the boy was the least bit surprised that each could understand the other. Two creatures who shared a love for motorcycles naturally spoke the same language.
Beverly Cleary
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My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
Beverly Cleary
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What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
Beverly Cleary
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Today I discovered two kinds of people who go to high school: those who wear new clothes to show off on the first day, and those who wear their oldest clothes to show they think school is unimportant.
Beverly Cleary
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I write in longhand on yellow legal pads.
Beverly Cleary
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My favorite books are a constantly changing list, but one favorite has remained constant: the dictionary. Is the word I want to use spelled practice or practise? The dictionary knows. The dictionary also slows down my writing because it is such interesting reading that I am distracted.
Beverly Cleary
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Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.
Beverly Cleary
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I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house they want places to play.
Beverly Cleary
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Don't stop now. Go ahead! Be readers all of your lives. And don't forget, librarians and teachers can help you find the right books to read.
Beverly Cleary
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I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
Beverly Cleary
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In seventh grade...I found a place on the [library]shelf where my book would be if I ever wrote a book, which I doubted.
Beverly Cleary