Jon Scieszka Quotes

Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?

I love Joan Didion, but I love her writing. I don't think meeting her could solve my problems or make me understand the world better.

When you're an established name, you know that a children's book will have a pretty good chance of getting picked up. Like Madonna. It's not that I had this great idea. Actually, in my case, it was a great idea.

Judging from the letters I've received from obviously feeble-minded persons who wish I would write another These Old Shades, it ought to sell like hot cakes.

Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

We had to do the same thing here. To top that sequel was quite a task. Mike had a couple of good conceptual humour and character ideas, which got me back into it.

I write for kids because I think the most interesting (and most humorous) stories come from people's childhoods. When I was writing 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid,' I had a blast talking on the phone to my younger brother, Patrick, remembering all of the things that happened to our family when we were growing up.

I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.

If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.

I go to readings by fiction writers like Alice Walker, and I'm envious of the level of attention they generate.

To be a dramatic writer takes hard work, talent, and discipline. And that's why I just make up crap.

If you're going to be related to someone it might as well be Dickens.

I would say the reason that I've never written a novel is because I've never written a novel.

I feel lucky that my career so far has included books for adults and books for kids. They're equally important to me, and I hope I get to continue writing both.

I never thought I'd be a writer. I never thought I'd be able to read a book, let alone write one. So if books like this inspire kids to write, or even read a whole book, I think it's good.

Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt.

I started writing when I was 9 years old. I was like this weird kid who would just stay in my room, typing little funny magazines and drawing comic strips.

My books are written from the heart, to entertain: they're books I would like to read. Because of that, when I meet people who like them, we have so much to talk about!

I don't know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

We have this habit of romanticizing the lives of writers. I remember when I was a kid, I was like, 'I want to be Kurt Vonnegut.'

I wanted to write at school - to write funny stories which the teacher might ask me to read out to the class. It's all basically about showing off.

I remember how a man once got in touch with me to tell me that he was so engrossed in my book that he had to take a day off from work just so that he could finish reading it. Such kind of responses from my readers is extremely endearing, and it keeps me going.

It's hilarious to me that by writing an obscene fake children's book I am mistaken for a parenting expert.

The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading.