Judy Blume quotes

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

#Determine #Handle

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Freedom #Children #Philosophy

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

#Inspirational #Inspiring #Advice

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Inspirational #Fear #Adventure

Believe in yourself and you can achieve greatness in your life.
-- Judy Blume

#Inspirational Life #Believe #Greatness

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

#Book #Kids #Needs

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Hate #People #Superhero

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Children #Book #Reading

[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.
-- Judy Blume

#Real #Book #Fire

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

#Things Change #Imagine #Young

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

#Parent #Freedom To Choose #Best Gift

The truth will make you odd.
-- Judy Blume

#Truth #Odd

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

#Book #Writing #Character

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.
-- Judy Blume

#Moral #Outrage

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Together #Pieces #Paper

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

#Book #Fighting #Offensive

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?
-- Judy Blume

#Fall #What Matters #Years

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

#Character

A good writer is always a people watcher.
-- Judy Blume

#People

our finger prints dont fade from the lives we touch
-- Judy Blume

#Fingers #Print

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

#Boys #Handsome #Persons

Little kids are amazing. They seem able to adjust to anything.
-- Judy Blume

#Kids #Littles #Able

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Mother #Growing Up #Father

In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices-and all because of fear.
-- Judy Blume

#Teacher #Book #Loss

A lot of people worry much too much about what their children are reading... If a child picks up a book and reads something she has a question about, if she can go to her parents, great. Or else they will read right over it. It won't mean a thing. They are very good, I think, at monitoring what makes them feel uncomfortable. If something makes them feel uncomfortable they will put it down.
-- Judy Blume

#Children #Book #Reading

If no one speaks out for [young readers], if they don’t speak out for themselves, all they’ll get for required reading will be the most bland books available. Instead of finding the information they need at the library, instead of finding novels that illuminate life, they will find only those materials to which nobody could possibly object... In this age of censorship I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced — writers’ voices, teachers’ voices, students’ voices — and all because of fear.
-- Judy Blume

#Teacher #Book #Reading

Determination and hard work are as important as talent.
-- Judy Blume

#Determination #Hard Work #Important

Its all about your determination, I think, as much as anything. There are a lot of people with talent, but its that determination.
-- Judy Blume

#Determination #Thinking #People

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Morning #Children #Thinking

When I started to write, it was the '70s, and throughout that decade, we didn't have any problems with book challenges or censorship.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Writing #Challenges

My mother was my greatest fan.
-- Judy Blume

#Mother #Fans

I wanted to write honest books for kids because I didn't have those when I was a kid.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Writing #Kids

Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it.
-- Judy Blume

#Writing #Listening #Teach

When you ask, Did writing change my life? It totally changed my life. It gave me my life.
-- Judy Blume

#Writing #Changed #Changing My Life

The only thing that works with writing is that you care so passionately about it yourself, that you make someone else care passionately about it.
-- Judy Blume

#Writing #Care

I am a big defender of 'Harry Potter,' and I think any book that gets kids to read are books that we should cherish, we should be thankful for them.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Kids #Thinking

I love to watch movies.
-- Judy Blume

#Watches #Watch Movie

I'm really quite bad at coming up with plot ideas. I like to create characters and just see what will happen to them when I let them loose!
-- Judy Blume

#Character #Ideas #Plot

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Baby #Home #Writing

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Editors #Titles

Moms come up to me at book signings.
-- Judy Blume

#Mom #Book #Come Up

The creative process; I enjoy thinking up the stories and situations for my books.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Thinking #Creative

The child from nine to 12 interests me very much. And so, those were the years that I like to write about, when I'm writing.
-- Judy Blume

#Children #Writing #Years

No place has delicatessen like New York.
-- Judy Blume

#New York

A library is where you meet fascinating characters you never forget.
-- Judy Blume

#Character #Library #Never Forget

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

#Growing Up #Kids #Opportunity

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

#Crush #Looks #Way

Ideas seem to come from everywhere - my life, everything I see, hear, and read, and most of all, from my imagination. I have a lot of imagination.
-- Judy Blume

#Ideas #Imagination #My Imagination

But if you aren't any religion, how are you going to know if you should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center?
-- Judy Blume

#Community #Jewish Community #Should

My characters live inside my head for a long time before I actually start a book. They become so real to me, I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Some people consider this weird. But my family understands.
-- Judy Blume

#Real #Book #Character

What's the point of thinking about how it's going to end when it's just the beginning?
-- Judy Blume

#Thinking #Ends

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
-- Judy Blume

#Air #Color #Wind

She wondered if all the firsts in her life would go by so quickly, and be forgotten just as quickly.
-- Judy Blume

#Firsts #Forgotten

We must, we must, we must increase our bust.
-- Judy Blume

#Increase

Why are we acting as if we're angry. Are we angry?
-- Judy Blume

#Acting #Angry

Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.
-- Judy Blume

some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
-- Judy Blume

#Way #Truth Is

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

#Safety #Focus #Safety And Security

I want you to know it was no big deal...those movies showing women screaming in labor are plain bullshit....there's nothing to it...you just push and push and finally the baby pops out...to tell you the truth I don't even rember that much about it except there was a very nice guy standing over me and every time a strong contraction started he gave me a whiff of gas...
-- Judy Blume

#Baby #Strong #Nice

Suddenly question number four popped into my mind. Have you thought about how this relationship will end?
-- Judy Blume

#Numbers #Mind #Four

Like my mother said, you can't go back to holding hands
-- Judy Blume

#Mother #Hands #Said

you can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain
-- Judy Blume

#Pain #Causes #Deny

hi I hope u want to be my friends
-- Judy Blume

#Want

You've never been in love," she said. "You don't understand." "If being in love means giving up your freedom, not to mention your opportunities," Caitlin said, "Then I haven't missed anything.
-- Judy Blume

#Giving Up #Mean #Being In Love

I love you, Michael Wagner.” “Forever?” he asked. “Forever,” I said.
-- Judy Blume

#Love You #Forever #Said

Without peanut butter, I might starve.
-- Judy Blume

#Peanut Butter #Might #Peanuts

Snoring keeps the monsters away.
-- Judy Blume

#Monsters #Snoring

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

#Book #Writing #Want

Suppose there aren't any more A + days once you get to be twelve? Wouldn't that be something! To spend the rest of your life looking for an A + day and not finding it.
-- Judy Blume

#Twelve #Findings

I think about Lenaya and Hugh. Will they know how much I've changed this year? Will they have changed too? I'll wait until tomorrow to find out. And then it's possible I won't find out after all. Because some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
-- Judy Blume

#Life #Thinking #Years

I still get angry when older people assume that everyone in my generation, screws around. They're probably the same ones who think all kids use dope. It's true that we are more open than our parents but that just means we accept sex and talk about it. It doesn't mean we are all jumping into bed together.
-- Judy Blume

#Sex #Mean #Kids

I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.
-- Judy Blume

#Growing Up #People #Stories

I fell in love with books at the Elizabeth Public Library when I was four...
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Library #Four

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.
-- Judy Blume

#Regret #Sorry #Thinking

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.
-- Judy Blume

#Curiosity #May #Wells

I am not scared of you, I am scare of these feelings.
-- Judy Blume

#Fear #Feelings #Scare

It's strange, but when it comes right down to it I never do fall apart--even when I'm sure I will.
-- Judy Blume

#Fall #Falling Apart #Strange

I made promises to you that I'm not sure I can keep. None of it has anything to do with you. It's just that I don't know what to do now. You must be thinking what a rotten person I am. Well, believe me, I'm thinking the same thing. I don't know how this happened or why. Maybe I can get over it. Do you think you can wait—because I don't want you to stop loving me. I keep remembering us and how it was. I don't want to hurt you … not ever …
-- Judy Blume

#Hurt #Believe #Thinking

I like one hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain and things that are pink. I hate pimples, baked potatoes, when my mother's mad, and religious holidays.
-- Judy Blume

#Mother #Religious #Hate

You think everything can be magically cured with vitamins?” “Everything but us.
-- Judy Blume

#Thinking #Vitamins

Caitlyn isn't someone to get over. She's someone to come to terms with, the way you have to come to terms with your parents, your siblings. You can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain.
-- Judy Blume

#Pain #Sibling #Parent

When I'm writing a book, you can't think about your audience. You're going to be in big trouble if you think about it. You're got to write from deep inside.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #Writing #Thinking

What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.
-- Judy Blume

#Morning #Writing #Character

I meet people on the street or at book signings and they tend to treat me as if they know me, as if we're connected. It's great.
-- Judy Blume

#Book #People #Treats

I think people who write for kids, we have that ability to go back into our own lives.
-- Judy Blume

#Writing #Kids #Thinking

I'm an e-mail junkie though I'm trying to read my in-box only twice a day and to answer all at once.
-- Judy Blume

#Trying #Answers #Mail