Josiah > Josiah's Quotes

“We writers can use our own longing - and frequently do - without ever having to understand or analyze it. That is why our stories are often wiser than we are.”
― Marion Dane Bauer

“I don't have any of the answers, son. Never did. All I can do is keep asking the questions. Keep trying to make sense of why people do what they do.”
― Rodman Philbrick, The Last Book in the Universe

“Crying can help, too. People are often afraid to cry because they are told that crying is for babies. Crying does not make you a baby, no matter what anyone says. There are times when people feel so bad that they can't express their feelings in words. At those times, crying helps.”
― James Howe, The Hospital Book

“The future is a trickster rabbit, full of surprises. Only the past is predictable.”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it—your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all.”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble. —Bobby Goodspeed”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break our spirit.”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“Another thing I think about names is that they DO hurt. They hurt because we believe them. We think they are telling us something true about ourselves, something other people can see even if we don't. —Bobby Goodspeed”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“The way I look at it, love does not necessarily make for a happy ending any more than winning does. What makes for a happy ending is what Addie said all along: freedom. The freedom to be who you are without anybody calling you names. —Bobby Goodspeed”
― James Howe, The Misfits

“There's no such thing as a wasted wish.”
― James Howe, Totally Joe

“A day can start out ordinary and end up being in the top ten. —Joe Bunch”
― James Howe, Totally Joe

“I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. —Joe Bunch”
― James Howe, Totally Joe

“But a light now waxed within him at the knowledge that such wonders as he had been shown could exist.”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“Must a man then live as his fellows live, and never reach beyond?”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“The human mind is incredible. It can do nothing without belief, yet practically anything with it.”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“What is it, I wonder, that makes two people suddenly become important to each other? So important that everything else around them just fades away?”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“People who love each other can no more keep from communicating than from breathing.”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“It is the only happiness now possible to me, to know that all is well with you”
― Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars

“Finally, you have to be able to get over a crush if it doesn't work out. A crush is like a love disease. It can drive you mad. Try not to let it get you down.”
― Alec Greven, How to Talk to Girls

“If it doesn't work out, just let it go. Whatever happens, don't let it make you crazy.”
― Alec Greven, How to Talk to Girls

“Horace and Morris and Dolores were friends—the greatest of friends, the truest of friends, the now-and-forever-I'm-yours sort of friends.”
― James Howe, Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores

“Friends you will have need of, for in you two worlds meet. There is no one on both sides with you, so you must learn to take your own counsel; and not to fear what is strange, if you know it also to be true.”
― Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword

“Sometime on a bright blue day
When everything is very clear
And there are no wrinkles in the sky
It's good to go to a quiet place
And lie down on your back and look at the world
Or put your face deep in the grass
And your arms around the ground
And remember how it was when you were little
And remember you're still the same you
Only you got bigger on the outside is all that happened.”
― Bobby Markels, How to be a Human Bean

“But the inside stuff
Isn't in these poems
About how to be a
REAL HUMAN BEING
Because no one can tell you that
Except you.
Because the you of you
Is inside you someplace
Probably in the middle of your heart.
You can feel it there.
And the you in you
ALWAYS knows when you're being a
REAL HUMAN BEING
You know what I mean.
And don't let anyone tell you different.”
― Bobby Markels, How to be a Human Bean

“Being a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.”
― Julius Lester, Guardian

“But there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.”
― Julius Lester, Guardian

“To give good hugs you have to have some soft places.
—Jeremy Richards”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“But I want you around even when I don't need you.
—Jeremy Richards”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“We remember with our emotions. The things that were important in our emotional life, that's what we remember.”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“Books, and especially fiction, do not proceed from ideas. They are born from feelings ”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom