Beverly Cleary

“I wanted to be a librarian from the time I was in the sixth grade.”

“Quite often somebody will say, 'What year do your books take place?' and the only answer I can give is, 'In childhood.'”

“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”

“Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.”

“I had a very wise mother. She always said when I complained about life, 'Well, you just have to get on with it.'”

“I don't think I am a celebrity. I'm a writer. I'm a storyteller.”

“I have stayed true to my own memories of childhood, which are not different in many ways from childhood today.”

“I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.”

“One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I looked up from my book and thought, 'I wish I could read a book about kids like us.'”

“The best writers, the writers who endure, are the ones who are most themselves.”

“I believe in a land of just enough. It is not a Utopia. It is a place where we are not consumed by the desire for more.”

“I wrote for the children of my neighborhood. And we were all just ordinary kids.”