The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Beverly Cleary
American
Author
About the author
I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Books
#Boys
#Growing up
Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Writers
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,
American
Author
#Chance
#Books
#Reading
#Twins
What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Children
#Growing up
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,
American
Author
#People
#Television
#Mother
#Father
#Evening
Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Will
#Books
#Childhood
People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#People
#Children
#Books
People are inclined to say that I am Ramona. I'm not sure that's true, but I did share some experiences with her.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#People
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,
American
Author
#Friend
#Books
One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Want
#Reading
I was an only child; I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Sisters
#Sister
I enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Writing
Children want to do what grownups do.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Want
#Children
I was a librarian.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Children
#Reading
#Teachers
#School
#Pleasure
I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house; they want places to play.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Want
#Children
#Play
#Mother
#Father
#Feelings
I feel sometimes that in children's books there are more and more grim problems, but I don't know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Want
#Problems
#Children
#Books
#Burden
I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Laws
I had a very wise mother. She always kept books that were my grade level in our house.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Books
#Mother
I read my books aloud before they were published.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Books
I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Mind
I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
I don't necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with the part of the story that's most vivid in my imagination and work forward and backward from there.
Beverly Cleary,
American
Author
#Work
#Imagination
#Beginning