Andrew Clements
We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
The dictionary is like a time capsule of all of human thinking ever since words began to be written down. And exploring where words have come from can increase your understanding of the words themselves and expand your understanding of how to use the words, and all of this change happens in your thinking when you read the words.
Books and people are hard to compare.
My sister called her pillow a pilgo. My brother called his pacifier his nimma. But I don't think I was much of a word generator myself.
Part of being a fiction writer is being able to imagine how someone else is thinking and feeling. I think I've always been good at that.
I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stories and mystery books, and I have wonderful memories of my mom reading picture books aloud to me. I learned that words are powerful.
I had a high school English teacher who made me really work at writing. And once, when I got an assignment back, she'd written: 'This is so good, Andrew. This should be published!' That made a big impression on me.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is another good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word.
There's so much made of the exceptional and the celebrity, the famous, and the wannabees.
The highest praise is when a kid says, 'This book feels so real; this could have happened at my school.'
I get wonderful letters from kids and teachers. I must have the best readers in the world.
Sooner or later,reality does occor and when it does, all the lies show up, like blood on snow.Collection: Lying
I have my own story, and I love my story, but I know I can't tell it alone, not now. Because stories have centers, but they don't have edges. No boundaries.Collection: Stories
But fear doesn't need doors and windows. It works from the inside.Collection: Inspirational
It is not good to have TOO MUCH of anything.Collection: Inspirational
I glance into the faces of all these people out for a Sunday stroll, but I'm not seeing eyes and noses and mouths. I'm seeing stories. Every person has a story. All the hopes and dreams. And fears. And secrets. In every face.Collection: Dream
Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't three lefts make a right? Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't two negatives make a positive?Collection: Life
Dave couldn't remember the last time a grownup had apologized to him.Collection: Lasts
who says dog means dog?Collection: Dog
Because a real kiss, a kiss that two real people choose to give each other - it's something that can't be filmed or photographed or drawn, or even described with words. Because a kiss isn't what it looks like or how it feels. A real kiss happens down deep inside of two hearts at the same time. It's hidden away. A real kiss is invisible.Collection: Real
And I love Jane Austen's use of language too--the way she takes her time to develop a phrase and gives it room to grow, so that these clever, complex statements form slowly and then bloom in my mind. Beethoven does the same thing with his cadence and phrasing and structure. It's a fact: Jane Austen is musical. And so's Yeats. And Wordsworth. All the great writers are musical.Collection: Clever
Watch TV or something." That's what the note says. So I say to myself, Fine. But I think I'll do the "or something" part.Collection: Thinking
Darkness is only light's absence.Collection: Light
I almost tell him that I'd never be able to do something like that, just take out my instrument and begin playing on a street corner. But it feels to personal. Yes, I'm shy, but why bring it to his attention? I'm too shy to talk about how shy I am.Collection: Shy