Beverly Cleary Quotes

I cling to the fantasy that I could have done something more creative. Like actually writing a script, or writing a book. But the awful truth is that I... probably can't!

Aside from the Rizzoli & Isles books, there are many other stories I want to write. The question is whether I'll live long enough to write them all!

My mom was dying for me to write a book, she was my biggest advocate.

When I was in my early 20s, my dream was to write mystery novels. I wanted to do what my favourite crime writer, Ross Macdonald, did - crank out a book a year. The only problem - and it was a considerable one - was that I stank.

Dreamers become writers, and for me, being a published writer is a dream come true.

Even while in school - initially, Vineberg Allen in Mussourie, and later, a number of schools in Ludhiana - I aspired to achieve great things in life. Admittedly, I wasn't quite sure about what these great things would be.

I want to be a writer someday.

I wanted to be a writer from my early teenage years, but I never told anyone. Writers, in my opinion, were god-like creatures, and to say I was striving to be a writer would be incredibly arrogant.

I don't think I knew I would be a writer. I wanted to become a writer, and I tried to write.

I think I do want to go into politics. I really, really do. And I don't know if I will.

As a high-school drop-out, I knew I wanted to write, but I wasn't overly confident that I was going to be writing anything serious. I was happy enough with the idea that I could be a penny-a-word guy and survive.

All through high school and college, my parents would ask me over and over again, 'What are you going to do with your life? What do you want to be?' Well, in my heart I wanted to be a singer like Bing, but I worried about the reality of that dream. Did I think for one minute that I had the voice to pull it off? Of course not.

I've always had ideas for more books than I can write.

I'd like to know what I could do if I really had the time to spend on writing a book, with no columns or shows to do at the same time.

I know that I'm probably far more pedestrian and less talented than many who dreamed of becoming writers but couldn't see the road so easily.

I don't know if I want to be a writer.

I always wanted to write about comics and I have written little things here and there but I am not confident in my writing.

I often get asked if I think I'm ever going to build something useful, and maybe someday I will.

I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don't know what I would write.

In a weak moment, I have written a book.

It never occurred to me when I was young that I could be an author. That would be like saying, "I want to be a movie star" or "I want to be a wizard." I didn't have any concept of what that path would look like. Maybe that's why I didn't publish my first book until I was 38.

I'm a better writer now because I've worked very hard at getting better. My long-range goal will always be to write better books.

My last book was speculative. I just don't quite know what I am doing. But I'll get there. I have a list of things I would love to write.

My hope when I wrote the first book was that I would get to do it again. But it was not entirely clear that that would happen.

It's just strange to think about...whether I'll be an artist or what I'll be doing.