Judy Blume quotes:

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.

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.

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.

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

If you aren't any religion, how will you know if you should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center?

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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'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!

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

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.

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

I love to watch movies.

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.

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

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

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

The truth will make you odd.

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

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

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

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

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.

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

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

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.

That's not a bad word...hate and war are bad words, but fuck isn't.

You've got to enjoy whatever you can and forget about the rest.

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

Snoring keeps the monsters away.

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.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.

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

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 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.

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.

our finger prints dont fade from the lives we touch

My husband says I have too much imagination, but I don't think a writer can have too much imagination!

Things change"¦things happen"¦things you can't even imagine when you're young and full of hope.

Another thing all writers have in common is we're all observers. We pay attention to detail.

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?

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.

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

I've heard that some authors do dream their books and I would love that if it happened to me, but so far it hasn't. Sometimes I'll get a good idea during the night and if I don't write it down, I won't remember it the next 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.

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.

[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.

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

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.

Ideas come from everywhere - they come from what you see and hear and imagine.

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.

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

I love movies, and theater, and kayaking, reading, biking, walking - oh, and dancing. I love to dance!

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

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.

hi I hope u want to be my friends

I'm lucky that so many children visit my website. At least I get to talk with them that way.

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.

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

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

I kept a diary as a teenager but I never would have shared it with anyone. Still, I think it's very good practice to write things down.

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

Determination and hard work are as important as talent.

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.

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

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.

Sometimes I'll say, "I wrote that book," and the person will look at you as if you're really strange. One time that happened to my daughter on a plane. She was sitting next to a girl who was reading one of my books and my daughter said, "My mother wrote that book." And the girl started to quiz my daughter, asking her all sorts of questions, like what are the names of Judy's children and where did she grow up. My daughter thought it was so funny.

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...

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

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.

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

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.

I like to read fiction best and I like to write fiction, too.

I love you, Michael Wagner." "Forever?" he asked. "Forever," I said.

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

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

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!

We must, we must, we must increase our bust.

I am not scared of you, I am scare of these feelings.

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

Without peanut butter, I might starve.

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

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.

I love to talk with children. I try to visit schools but it's hard for me to travel when I'm trying to write. Some authors are able to do both.

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.

You think everything can be magically cured with vitamins?" "Everything but us.

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

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!

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.

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

I'm a more skilled writer now, but after 23 books it's harder to be fresh and that's really important to me. I don't want to write the same thing over and over again.

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

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

My mother was my greatest fan.

I try to create new characters in each book I write. That's what makes writing fun and interesting for me.

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.

In a New York Post interview, Judy Blume, author of young-adult fiction, gave this advice on getting your kids to read: "Moms come up to me at book signings and describe how they're telling their daughters, 'These were my favorite books,'?" she says. "I say, 'Quit it! That's the biggest turnoff!'"You want to get them to read them, leave them around the house and every so often, say, 'You're not ready to read this yet.'

Sometimes I can't read my own handwriting. That's a problem!

Do not let anyone discourage you. If they try: get determined, not depressed.

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.

No place has delicatessen like New York.

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.

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.

I'm a people person. I never get tired of watching people, especially young people.

I always had stories inside my head and one day I just decided to start writing them down. I didn't actually decide.

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

Moms come up to me at book signings.