Judy Blume Quotes

The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.

[When I was a kid] I was a surgeon, amputating legs and arms of my paper dolls. And I had a little board with little tacks that I would tack them down to do this.

I like revising much, much better than getting down a first draft. The first draft is just getting the pieces to the puzzle. Then I get to put the puzzle together!

I thought ["Summer Sisters" ] would be a children's book - two girls who summer together from very different backgrounds. And then when it just kept going and going and going. They kept getting older.

When you ask, did writing change my life? It totally changed my life. It gave me my life.

I made promises to you that I'm not sure I can keep. None of it has anything to do with you. It's just that I don't know what to do now. You must be thinking what a rotten person I am. Well, believe me, I'm thinking the same thing. I don't know how this happened or why. Maybe I can get over it. Do you think you can wait - because I don't want you to stop loving me. I keep remembering us and how it was. I don't want to hurt you ... not ever.

I am certainly a fearful person, but fearless in my writing. So there's that other person inside.

My mother was my greatest fan.

Heavy petting, that was fun! That was good. And frankly, you know I wish kids would go back to it. It's very satisfying. And it's not as scary. So many girls, you know this. I mean they are having what we call sex. Right? They're having intercourse. They don't want to, they don't get anything out of it.

There's no book or play or series or anything that speaks to everyone, because then it wouldn't speak to anyone.

Something will be offensive to someone in every book, so you've got to fight it.

I always had stories inside my head and one day I just decided to start writing them down. I didn't actually decide.

I like one hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain and things that are pink. I hate pimples, baked potatoes, when my mother's mad, and religious holidays.

Little kids are amazing. They seem able to adjust to anything.

My insides still turn over when he looks at me that certain way.

Suddenly question number four popped into my mind. Have you thought about how this relationship will end?

I know where "Blubber" came from. It came from stories that my daughter told me when she came home from fifth grade. There was a kid in the class who was being bullied. We didn't even call it bullying then, that's what's so weird. Victimization in the classroom. The word bully was so out, was so not in use for all those years and now it's back big time.

Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.

Sometimes I can't read my own handwriting. That's a problem!

I'm a more skilled writer now, but after 23 books it's harder to be fresh and that's really important to me. I don't want to write the same thing over and over again.

you can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain

Determination and hard work are as important as talent.

I loved to read, and I think any child who loves to read will read anything, including the back of the cereal box, which I did every morning.

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.

A lot of people worry much too much about what their children are reading... If a child picks up a book and reads something she has a question about, if she can go to her parents, great. Or else they will read right over it. It won't mean a thing. They are very good, I think, at monitoring what makes them feel uncomfortable. If something makes them feel uncomfortable they will put it down.

I kept a diary as a teenager but I never would have shared it with anyone. Still, I think it's very good practice to write things down.

I don't believe in writer's block. There are good days when you're writing and less good days. I've learned that if it's not happening to walk away and return later. I doodle a lot and often get my best ideas with a pencil in my hand while I'm doodling. The problem is, sometimes I lose my doodles and that's bad!

Believe in yourself and you can achieve greatness in your life.

My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully, and yell for help if you need it.

I like to read fiction best and I like to write fiction, too.

Another thing all writers have in common is we're all observers. We pay attention to detail.

How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives.

Never give up! And remember, determination is as important as talent.

[With "Summer Sisters" the publisher] sent me on a big book tour. And it was the most wonderful professional experience of my life. I mean it was like Kleenex on every table wherever I was, friends patting friends on the back and they'd cry and I'd cry.

I love to talk with children. I try to visit schools but it's hard for me to travel when I'm trying to write. Some authors are able to do both.

Ideas seem to come from everywhere - my life, everything I see, hear, and read, and most of all, from my imagination. I have a lot of imagination.

Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.

I am a big defender of 'Harry Potter,' and I think any book that gets kids to read are books that we should cherish, we should be thankful for them.

[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

I have like two dreams a week that I have to write a paper that I'm late with or that I've gone back to high school and have to do that in addition to my current job.

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

I'm lucky that so many children visit my website. At least I get to talk with them that way.

When I was twelve. And I was going through my parents' bookshelves, I found the most wonderful books and plenty of. Within those wonderful books that were real turn-on's. At 12 or 13, books were such turn-ons.

I think we made out [sexuality changing]. I think that's really great, and we didn't jump into intercourse. And there were no blow jobs.

I never read a horse book in my life. But I thought that's what my friends were reading and that's what I should be reading. And this was "Dobbin Does This" and "Dobbin Does That."

She wondered if all the firsts in her life would go by so quickly, and be forgotten just as quickly.