Quote

People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.

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
People
Surprised
Usually
Hear
Books
Read
Book
Children
Really

More quotes by 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
My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
Image
The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
Beverly Cleary
Image
We didn't have television in those days, and many people didn't even have radios. My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening.
Beverly Cleary
Image
As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
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 wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
Beverly Cleary
Image
Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary
Image
If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
Beverly Cleary
Image
Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
Beverly Cleary
Image
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
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 am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
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
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
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
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
I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
Beverly Cleary