Judy Blume

“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 wasn't that good at science, and I gave up on math long before I should have. I like to think if I were in school today that would be different.”

“I can't relate to people who treat me as a 'famous person.' I only like to hang around with people who treat me as a regular person because that's what I am. All people are really just regular.”

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

“I don't want to repeat myself.”

“I don't think it's realistic to say kids shouldn't watch any TV. I just wish the shows would be better. And that kids would watch less. Get out there and do things, kids! Don't become couch potatoes!”

“I was so inspired by Beverly Cleary's funny and wonderful books.”

“Do you think just having a baby automatically makes you love it?''I'm not sure... you might have to learn to love it, like any other person.”

“You should always go through the first draft of a book all at once, I think, to get the best results. You can take time off after the first draft and come back to it fresh.”

“I never thought I wanted to write about the '50s, because I thought it was the most boring and bland decade to grow up in, and I never wanted to go back there.”

“I know it's working when I'm writing a book if I'm laughing or crying.”

“I wish I could prevent my kids from making all the mistakes I've made. But I can't do that. No parent can.”

“I am not sure that the inner world of teenage girls has changed. What's most important to kids today is still the same stuff.”

“The '50s were a secretive time.”

“By the time I was 12, I was reading my parents' books because there weren't teenage books then.”

“I believe that 'The Artist' is the kind of movie you see and you don't forget. I know it's going to stay with me.”

“Fear is contagious, and those who wish America to become a faith-based society are doing their best to spread it.”

“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.”

“I discovered the National Coalition Against Censorship when I felt totally alone in my fight to protect intellectual freedom, and that group changed my life. I was no longer alone.”

“I'm phobic about thunderstorms.”