Walter Dean Myers

“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.”

“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.”

“Let me thinkThinking is all I haveIf wisdom is a pretenseThen let me pretend to be wise”

“There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities.”

“I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy.”

“I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott.”

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

“I like people who take responsibility for their lives.”

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

“There have been two areas identified as being vital to reading - and that's for very young children between the ages of one month and five years and for teenagers. I've been trying to find ways of approaching both groups.”

“You are not in Disneyland,” he said. “The little people you see running around over here are not Mouseketeers. Some of them are friendly, and some of them have a strong desire to kill you. If you remember that, and manage to kill them before they kill you, then you have a good chance of getting through your year of service here.”

“My younger brother's death in Vietnam was both sobering and cause for reflection. In 'Fallen Angels' I wanted to dispel the notion of war as either romantic or simplistically heroic.”

“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.”

“When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat.”

“I was teased if I brought my books home. I would take a paper bag to the library and put the books in the bag and bring them home. Not that I was that concerned about them teasing me - because I would hit them in a heartbeat. But I felt a little ashamed, having books.”

“Yeah, it’s hard, babyIt’s hard right down to the boneI said Oh, it’s hard babyIt’s hard right down to the very boneIt’s hard when you’re a womanAnd you find yourself all aloneI’ve been flapping and scrappingAnd running from door to doorYou know I’ve been flapping and scrapping, honeyRunning from door to door”

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

“The most difficult idea to reconcile in war is the notion that anything is going to be solved by killing a stranger, or in risking your life for a cause anchored in some distant political arena.”

“I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings.”

“There were two very distinct voices going on in my head and I moved easily between them. One had to do with sports, street life and establishing myself as a male... The other voice, the one I had from my street friends and teammates, was increasingly dealing with the vocabulary of literature.”