Walter Dean Myers Quotes

Childhood reading is so important.

The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity.

Once upon a time, I sat in my mother's lap as she turned the pages of Golden Books, and I gradually learned to read.

My dad taught me to read by reading comic strips in the Saturday paper and Archie comics.

I am glad to say that I used to read a lot right from a young age.

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.

Basically, I learned to read by reading 'Peanuts,' just wanting to know what they were saying. I was 4 or 5 or whatever. I think it's a fairly common story.

Anything that gets children reading is fine.

With reading, I was very lucky. I had a mother who read to me, not because she had time - she was a busy woman - but she found 10 minutes to come and sit on my bed with a book.

If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important.

I have said it often and I will say it again: I believe you learn to read when you are young, then read to learn for the rest of your life.

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

I believe we should spend less time worrying about the quantity of books children read and more time introducing them to quality books that will turn them on to the joy of reading and turn them into lifelong readers.

I don't remember being taught to read, and by the time I was seven years old, I had read a very great many books, good, bad, and indifferent.

I had begun reading earlier than most because my sister Emmy Lou, no doubt to keep me from bothering her, decided it was easier to teach me to read stories to myself rather than to read them to me, as she had been doing.

I'm just encouraging students to read. It's something you can do daily. It's something you can do whether you're sitting at home reading a newspaper or ordering something online. It's endless.

I had amazing intellectual privilege as a kid. My mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I was five, I read and wrote well enough to do my nine-year older brother's homework in exchange for chocolate or cigarettes. By the time I was 10, I was reading Orwell, Tolstoy's 'War and Peace,' and the Koran. I was reading comic books, too.

Reading should be a repeat performance.

Let all the time you can get be spent in trying to learn to read.

Of course, I've always read. I started when I was four years old and just didn't stop. I read all the time.

I taught my son to read with tabloids. We would sit to read the 'Weekly World News' together.

I was lucky because my mum was a teacher and showed me how to read and write. But most importantly, she encouraged me to use my imagination.

I think that being read to every night is the reason why I was plowing through volume after volume of 'Nancy Drew' books all by myself by the time I reached the first grade. I loved stories. I loved the escape. I had a vivid imagination.

I started reading when I was about three, a little over three.

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.