Walter Dean Myers Quotes

I was a good student, but a speech impediment was causing problems. One of my teachers decided that I couldn't pronounce certain words at all. She thought that if I wrote something, I would use words I could pronounce. I began writing little poems. I began to write short stories, too.

After so many books and so many years of writing, I have a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses. I love the process of writing and, if I allowed myself, I would write far too much every day. One weakness which I've struggled to overcome is my tendency to having my characters ruminate for pages.

Walter Dean Myers

There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities.

Walter Dean Myers

Crisis Reading Certain Communities Involving

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

Walter Dean Myers

Know Reading Exercise Wonderful Adjunct Treated Eat Right Should

We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.

Walter Dean Myers

Reading Tell Need Out Flat Flat Out Optional Kids

I couldn't speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that sense.

Walter Dean Myers

Speak Well Speech Sense Frustrated Therapy Sort Years

I didn't even know for years that people ever even got paid for this, because they don't teach you that in school. They don't say Shakespeare got a check.

Walter Dean Myers

You People School Know Check Paid Shakespeare Teach Because Even Ever Got Say Years

From my foster parents, the Deans, I received the love that was ultimately to strengthen me, even when I had forgotten its source. It was my foster mother, a half-Indian, half-German woman, who taught me to read, though she herself was barely literate. I remember her reading to me every day from 'True Romance' magazine.

Walter Dean Myers

I read a lot of comic books and any kind of thing I could find. One day, a teacher found me. She grabbed my comic book and tore it up. I was really upset, but then she brought in a pile of books from her own library. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Walter Dean Myers

One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.

Walter Dean Myers

I want young people to be hesitant to glorify war and to demand of their leaders justification for the sacrifices they ask of our citizens.

Walter Dean Myers

War People Want Young Citizens Demand Glorify Hesitant Justification Leaders Sacrifices Young People Ask Our

If what I read doesn't reflect my life - whether I'm gay or Latino or on welfare - doesn't that really mean that my life is not valuable?

Walter Dean Myers

Life My Life Gay Welfare Latino Reflect Valuable Mean Read Really Whether

With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.

Walter Dean Myers

People Writing Want Young Young People I Write About Write

When my family fell apart, it was such a troubled part of my life... I think I could understand what I was going through, but I didn't have the vocabulary for it.

Walter Dean Myers

Life Family My Life Think Apart Fell Troubled Vocabulary Could Going I Think Part Through Understand

I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head.

Walter Dean Myers

Never Live Head Write Stories

Fifty percent of all meaningful education takes place in the home. What do you share with your child? You share your interests. I was a book person. I read with my son. My wife is an artist. She dragged his little butt around to museums. He's an illustrator of children's books.

Walter Dean Myers

Children have adopted a consumerist attitude - I dare you to entertain me.

Walter Dean Myers

Attitude Me You Children Adopted Dare Entertain

So many organizations have a mentoring arm, but they don't really do it. Their idea of mentoring a kid is giving them general advice. But what they need to do is read with children.

Walter Dean Myers

Children Advice Giving Need Arm Mentoring Organizations General Idea Kid Many Read Really Them

As a young man, I saw families prosper without reading because there were always sufficient opportunities for willing workers who could follow simple instructions. This is no longer the case. Children who don't read are, in the main, destined for lesser lives. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to change this.

Walter Dean Myers

My dad was a janitor for U.S. Radium Corporation, and he stayed there for 37 years. So he didn't read.

Walter Dean Myers

Dad He Years Read Corporation Janitor Stayed

One of the problems is that kids who don't read - who are not doing well in school - they know they're not doing well. And they want everyone to be in that same category.

Walter Dean Myers

Problems Doing School Know Category One Of The Problems Everyone Kids Read Same Want Well Who

Now, my mom did not read well and she read 'True Romance' magazines, but she read with me. And she would spend 30 minutes a day, her finger going along the page, and I learned to read. Eventually, by the time I was four and a half, she could iron and I could sit there and read the 'True Romance.' And that was wonderful.

Walter Dean Myers

I keep threatening to keep a formal journal, but whenever I start one it instantly becomes an exercise in self-consciousness. Instead of a journal I manage to have dozens of notebooks with bits and pieces of stories, poems, and notes. Almost every thing I do has its beginning in a notebook of some sort, usually written on a bus or train.

Walter Dean Myers

To fight for one's country, to offer one's very life to promote the well being of the United States, is truly a noble undertaking. But so is the vigilance of the citizen who carefully examines our leaders to see if political problems are being solved by wars simply because this seems to be the easiest solution.

Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers Quotes

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