Avi quotes:

I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thinking about readers.

Every night, I was read to. Every Friday, we were taken to the library. I always received at least one book for my birthday. I have a few of them yet. Early on, I had my own collection of books. I loved to read. Still do.

For some 25 years, I worked as a librarian, first at the New York Public Library, then at Trenton State College in New Jersey. My life has always been with, around, and for books.

Everybody has ideas. The vital question is, what do you do with them? My rock musician sons shape their ideas into music. My sister takes her ideas and fashions them into poems. My brother uses his ideas to help him understand science. I take my ideas and turn them into stories.

Writing is my profession. Photography is my hobby.

Writers don't write writing, they write reading. When I was a kid, I read four or five books a week. And that is how I became a writer.

In my books I try to tell a good story, not give messages.

A sailor chooses the wind that takes the ship from a safe port. Ah, yes, but once you're abroad, as you have seen, winds have a mind of their own. Be careful, Charlotte, careful of the wind you choose.

I don't like the idea of a book being a test or being used for a test. The way - in my opinion - to make good readers is to let kids choose their own books and not test them.

It seems to me that you won't have had a proper series of adventures, unless you've gone through thick and thin.

Don't assume that because everyone believes a thing, that it is right or wrong. Reason things out for yourself. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why you believe things.

I was born in New York City, along with a twin sister. I am five minutes older than Emily. It was Emily, for reasons no one knows - she certainly doesn't - who called me Avi. It stuck. It's the only name I use now.

A lot of people think inspiration means magic. But really, inspiration means to put life into something.

Let's agree then . . . if you're about to come to a conclusion, you'll head off in another direction. You might even find your own voice.

I definitely have an affection for detective fiction, and when I first read Dashiell Hammett's 'The Maltese Falcon,' that book and its author made an enormous impression on me as a reader and a writer, and led me to other hard-boiled American writers like Raymond Chandler and Ross McDonald, among many.

I want my readers to feel, to think, sometimes to laugh. But most of all I want them to enjoy a good read.

I took a deep breath. 'For you I've got something better than love.' What's that?' I...trust you.' Why?' You'll never hurt me.' Thank you.' But...' But, what?' I said, 'That means I'll hurt you.' Why?' 'Cause, like I said, you'll never hurt me back.

To become a novelist, the most crucial thing one must do is read, read and read again - gradually you begin to think like a writer. Ideas are not found - they are shaped.

People are freer in America. But there are more tears.

It makes it harder to write if I watch a lot of television, because television is not like a written story.

Would you believe it? Would you believe it. Okay, this is WLRB, all-talk radio. Take a short break, then come right back to talk about whatever you want. Man, but I'm telling you: what's happening to this country!

It all depends on you. If you want it to be different,it will be different. Don't look at the world with your eyes but with your heart.

A sailor may choose the wind to ride out of seaport, but the wind has a mind of it's own.

I try to write about complex issues--young people in an adult world-- full of irony and contradiction in a narrative style that relies heavily on suspense with a texture rich in emotion and imagery. I take a great deal of satisfaction in using popular forms-- the adventure, the mystery, the thriller-- so as to hold my reader with the sheer pleasure of a good story. At the same time I try to resolve my books with an ambiguity that compels engagement. In short, I want my readers to feel, to think, sometimes to laugh. But most of all I want them to enjoy a good read.

The cure for unhappiness...It's this: What a person needs is always more than they say.

Now give me a kiss, say you love me and off you go." "Sure, Aunt Lu," I said, and I gave her the kiss she wanted. Then I ran out and caught my bus. I didn't say I loved her. I guess I did. But asking someone to say they love you--and she always asked--is like buying yourself a birthday present. It's more than likely exactly what you want. But it must make you feel awfully sad to get it.

For heaven's sake, don't write writing. Write reading!

There are those who'd rob a blind man of his eyelashes if they could.

All I can think is that when you torment a person...the soul dies. When the soul dies, I suppose mercy dies, too.

There is a limit to how much a seer wishes to see.

The more men see of the world, the bigger their hearts