Beverly Cleary Quotes

If you make a film about childhood, you've got to pick a moment - you know, 'The 400 Blows.'

I always wanted to make a coming-of-age film, or something about growing up, like 'The Wonder Years,' 'Stand By Me' or 'Diner.'

There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, to look back to when we were children.

That reminds me of something that happened to me when I was a kid.

I was 13 and at summer camp when I had my first kiss.

A lot of things you see as a child remain with you... you spend a lot of your life trying to recapture the experience.

When I was a kid, I thought it was tough.

A certain point came when I wanted to document growing-up adventures.

I suppose you always look back at how easier things were being young. There's always a shame that you're not as naive as you were.

Persona-wise, I represent a lot of people's childhoods.

For the most part, this record is autobiographical. At some point, the story of 'The Houston Kid' takes my experiences from 6 to 15 years old, and it sort of cross-pollinates with other kids in my neighborhood. It fuses their experiences with what was going on in my life.

I feel like, when we are young, especially, while we are experiencing so many 'firsts,' when songs move us, we recall exactly where we were when we heard them.

Childhood, catching our imagination when it is fresh and tender, never lets go of us.

I said: I must remember this, being small.

I might not remember how the sky looked on any given day. I do remember, though, what it was like to be a boy beneath a sky.

I love kids. I was a kid myself, once.

When you were a kid, a day was a long time and a year was a long time.

When everything happens to you when you're so young, you're very lucky, but by the same token, you're never going to have that same feeling again. The first time anything happens to you - your first love, your first success - the second one is never the same.

When I was a little kid, I told stories.

When I read 'Stand By Me,' it was like, 'This is a look back at the same time period when I was growing up, and it was about kids, but it really felt like what it was like to have those powerful feelings of friendship at age 12.' That's what got to me.

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen.

I remember way back when I was young, 10 years ago.

At night I dream about going to where I played when I was still young.

I watched 'My Girl' as an adult pretty recently, and it's a good movie.

I feel it was just a few years ago I was running around in short pants.