Wayne Grady Quotes

Just hit my 75th birthday, I'm feeling great!

Never the less, at the age of fifteen, having never seen a writer, a poet, a publisher or a magazine editor, and having only the vaguest ideas of procedure, I began working on the profession I had chosen.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

Not until my middle thirties did I consider myself a novelist.

My dream was to be known as a writer and to be able to produce at least one book that would be read by people. That dream came true with the publication of my first novel - and all the rest has been a sweet bonus.

When I wrote 'Sideways Stories from Wayside School' I never expected it to be published. It was kind of a hobby. Now, it's a job, but it's a job I like very much.

I'd like to do something a little different. Something a little less intense. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet. For the first time in my life, it's great to have choices, but I think I have to be very careful in choosing the right next project.

In the end, my pursuit of the elusive New York State driver's license became about much more than a divorced woman's learning to drive for the first time.

I remember the first time I held my book, my first book in my hands. I cannot tell you how it moved me.

Publishing a novel was such a proud thing for me. When I was a kid, I used to say to my mum and dad, 'I'm going to write a book. You'll see.' So when I did, and it was published, and people liked it, it was great.

There's still, even now, a part of me that can't believe that I got published. That part of me has never gone away.

Turning 90 is not for sissies.

I find, to my amazement, that I have reached the age of 90!

I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book's binder.

I never thought I'd write one book, let alone three. I'm absolutely delighted and every night, thank the good lord for spell check.

Having my novels published is a dream come true.

At 31, I decided to learn how to read and, at 32, read my first book: Lee Iacocca's autobiography. Ten years later, with my friend Larry 'Smokey' Genta, I wrote my first book, which was my proudest accomplishment.

I was going to write a book one day and I actually did. To have it is a major accomplishment for me.

I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract. I guess you can say I was on the slow train.

Today, you're 50. Now we can round your age up to 100! Happy 50th birthday!

Slowly, after dozens of rejection slips and failures and false starts and postponed dreams - what Langston Hughes called dreams deferred - I stepped onto the hallowed ground of being a published novelist, and then 15 years later, I even started to make real money.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.

Turning 102 is crap, and there is nothing to commemorate.

She made a firm resolution, one of the resolutions she was making almost daily these days. No more sleepovers, no more writing poetry, no more wasting time. Time to tidy up your life. Time to start again.

But even more so, it reminded me that this was all really happening. Stanford. The end of the summer. The beginning of my real life. It was no longer just creeping up, peeking over the horizon, but instead lingering in plain sight.