Judy Blume Quotes

How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives.

Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.

Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.

My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully, and yell for help if you need it.

Believe in yourself and you can achieve greatness in your life.

our finger prints dont fade from the lives we touch

Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.

Librarians save lives by handing the right book at the right time to a kid in need.

I hate first drafts, and it never gets easier. People always wonder what kind of superhero power they'd like to have. I wanted the ability for someone to just open up my brain and take out the entire first draft and lay it down in front of me so I can just focus on the second, third and fourth drafts.

[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

Books opened up a whole new world to me. Through them I discovered new ideas, traveled to new places, and met new people. Books helped me learn to understand other people and they taught me a lot about myself. ... Some books you never forget. Some characters become your friends for life.

We are friends for life. When we’re together the years fall away. Isn’t that what matters? To have someone who can remember with you? To have someone who remembers how far you’ve come?

The truth will make you odd.

Things change…things happen…things you can’t even imagine when you’re young and full of hope.

I don't believe in writer's block. There are good days when you're writing and less good days. I've learned that if it's not happening to walk away and return later. I doodle a lot and often get my best ideas with a pencil in my hand while I'm doodling. The problem is, sometimes I lose my doodles and that's bad!

Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.

Snoring keeps the monsters away.

I use a computer, but before I begin each new book I keep a notebook. I write down everything that comes to mind during that period before I actually begin. It might take months or weeks. That notebook is my security blanket so that I never have to face a blank screen (or blank page). But I print out often and my best ideas usually come with a pencil in my hand.

I have to go with what comes naturally to me. Fantasy isn't my thing. I did enjoy the Oz books when I was growing up and certainly my grandson and I read Harry Potter together. You write what you can as well as you can.

A library is where you meet fascinating characters you never forget.

When I was growing up, I dreamed about becoming a cowgirl, a detective, a spy, a great actress, or a ballerina. Not a dentist, like my father, or a homemaker, like my mother - and certainly not a writer, although I always loved to read.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

I always have trouble with titles for my books. I usually have no title until the editor has to present the book and calls me frantically, 'Judy, we need a title.

Some characters become your friends for life. That's how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.

I'm a rewriter. That's the part I like best . . . once I have a pile of paper to work with, it's like having the pieces of a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture.

Concentrate on how good if feels to be alive. No matter what. Just to see the color of the sky, just to smell the air, and feel the wind in your face

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.

The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.

I loved to read, and I think any child who loves to read will read anything, including the back of the cereal box, which I did every morning.

I love picture books. I think some of the best people in children's books are the ones who create their own picture books. I wish I could say I'm one of them, but I'm not.

Something will be offensive to someone in every book, so you've got to fight it.

I stop and think before I start a new book and ask myself do I really want to spend the next year or two or three with these characters because if I don't, then I shouldn't be writing about them.

I never read the "Bobbsey Twins" or "Boxcar Children."But I did remember being downtown, at the bookstore by myself and having an allowance and spending it on a Nancy Drew mysteries. And I was probably eleven, twelve.

Little kids are amazing. They seem able to adjust to anything.

I wasn't interested in the kinds of books that I thought I should be reading.

I never thought about writing. I was married young, I was still in college, as we did then, and I had two babies before I was 25, and I loved them, and I loved taking care of them, but I was a little bit cuckoo, staying at home and not having a creative outlet.

My insides still turn over when he looks at me that certain way.

Something awful happens to a person who grows up as a creative kid and suddenly finds no creative outlet as an adult.

I am certainly a fearful person, but fearless in my writing. So there's that other person inside.

There's no book or play or series or anything that speaks to everyone, because then it wouldn't speak to anyone.

It's not so much that I like him as a person God, but as a boy he's very handsome.

The best books come from someplace deep inside.... Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

[When I was a kid] I was a surgeon, amputating legs and arms of my paper dolls. And I had a little board with little tacks that I would tack them down to do this.

I wanted to tell him that I will never be sorry for loving him. That in a way I still do - that maybe I always will. I'll never regret one single thing we did together because what we had was very special. Maybe if we were ten years older it would have worked out differently. Maybe. I think it's just that I'm not ready for forever.

I was sick all the time, one exotic illness after another, which lasted throughout my twenties. My worst decade. But from the day the first book was accepted, I never got sick again. Writing changed my life.

I like revising much, much better than getting down a first draft. The first draft is just getting the pieces to the puzzle. Then I get to put the puzzle together!

Without peanut butter, I might starve.

I can't let safety and security become the focus of my life.

Never give up! And remember, determination is as important as talent.