Beverly Cleary Quotes & Sayings (Page 5)

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

“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.”

“I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.”

“I think adults sometimes don't think about how children are feeling about the adult problems.”

“I like to read, walk, cook, and travel to cities. We live in the country, so we miss museums and the bustle of city life.”

“I longed for funny stories about the sort of children who lived in my neighborhood.”

“'Dear Mr. Henshaw' came about because two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced, and so I wrote 'Dear Mr. Henshaw,' and it won the Newbery, and I was - it's been very popular.”

“I had a bad time in school in the first grade. Because I had been a rather lonely child on a farm, but I was free and wild and to be shut up in a classroom - there were 40 children on those days in the classroom, and it was quite a shock.”

“I think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children. Some of the teachers were just doing their job, but others had that little extra. They really cared about children and they wore pretty dresses.”

“I wrote books to entertain. I'm not trying to teach anything! If I suspected the author was trying to show me how to be a better behaved girl, I shut the book.”