Quote

Children want to do what grownups do.

Beverly Cleary

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Grownups
Children

More quotes by Beverly Cleary

Image
I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
Beverly Cleary
Image
Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary
Image
I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.
Beverly Cleary
Image
I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
Beverly Cleary
Image
As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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.
Beverly Cleary
Image
I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
Beverly Cleary
Image
People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
Image
I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
Beverly Cleary
Image
Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
Image
My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
Image
I was an only child I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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.
Beverly Cleary
Image
I have lovely memories of Los Angeles in the 1930s. I came down to live with my mother's cousin and they invited me to come and go to junior college for a year.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
Image
Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.
Beverly Cleary