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Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.

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
Good
Plucking
Bedtime
Writers
Need
Needs

More quotes by Beverly Cleary

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Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.
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I was an only child I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
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What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
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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.
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The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
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If we finished our work, the teacher would say, 'Now don't read ahead.' But sometimes I hid the book I was reading behind my geography book and did read ahead. You can hide a lot behind a geography book.
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I write in longhand on yellow legal pads.
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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.
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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
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As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The humiliation that Jane had felt turned to something else--grief perhaps, or regret. Regret that she had not known how to act with a boy, regret that she had not been wiser.
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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.
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Children want to do what grownups do.
Beverly Cleary
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I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
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I read my books aloud before they were published.
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With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.
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Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary