Quotes by Judy Blume

In sixth grade, I made up books to give book reports on.

Anybody who says, 'My childhood was completely happy,' is a person who isn't remembering the truth.

Librarians save lives: by handing the right book, at the right time, to a kid in need.

It'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.

The women's movement was slow in coming to suburban New Jersey.

I can't read fiction when I'm writing fiction, because I get intimidated if I read something really good.

In 1970, somebody once asked me whether I thought my books would still be around in 40 years, and I thought, 'How would I know, and why would I care?' Well, it turns out I really do care.

Nobody ever asks me why my characters don't text each other. Besides, as soon as you put something 'electronic' in a book, it's already out of date by the time it's published: everything will have changed. Human emotion, on the other hand, will never change.

You should always go through the first draft of a book all at once, I think, to get the best results. You can take time off after the first draft and come back to it fresh.

Everything they say a girl should get from her father in terms of total acceptance and love, I got all that from my father. But then I married a man just like my mother -- so phlegmatic.

I'm an Obama chick.

My mother was a cracker jack typist. And she would come in and sit at my house and type the final type script before I would then send it to the publisher. And it was nice for us.

Love at thirteen is nothing like love at eighteen.

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

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

I have to go with what comes naturally to me. Fantasy isn't my thing. I did enjoy the Oz books when I was growing up and certainly my grandson and I read Harry Potter together. You write what you can as well as you can.

I still have such a thing for leather jackets. I have a closet full of them, and my husband is always saying to me, 'Why do you need another jacket? You have plenty of jackets.'

We must, we must, we must increase our bust.

I was Little Miss Perfect. That's where all the secrets come in, because you know damn well you are not perfect, but you think your parents want you to be. And so you pretend.

To be ordinary was a fate worse than death.

A library is where you meet fascinating characters you never forget.

Without peanut butter, I might starve.

Some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them.

I lived in New York for eleven and a half years and I don't think anybody ever asked me about my religion. I never even thought about it. Now, all of a sudden, it was the big thing in my life.

But you have to be sure you can handle the situation before you jump into it.

Snoring keeps the monsters away.

You think everything can be magically cured with vitamins? Everything but us.

The best books come from someplace deep inside.... Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.

The best way to learn a foreign language is to fuck interesting foreigners.

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

Why are we acting as if we're angry. Are we angry?

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

In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices-and all because of fear.

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

It didn't happen in the 70s. So I had a whole decade when I was writing these books and maybe there was a little bit here or there but there was no big effort to ban books.

We weren't doing blow jobs when I was growing up.

I wanted to write honest books for kids because I didn't have those when I was a kid.

Writing totally changed my life. It gave me my life. Everything opened up.

Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don't even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that's wrong.

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.

Something awful happens to a person who grows up as a creative kid and suddenly finds no creative outlet as an adult.

I've never really thought in terms of taboos. I think that books can really help parents and kids talk together about difficult subjects. I've always felt that way.

It's strange, but when it comes right down to it I never do fall apart -- even when I'm sure I will.

It'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.

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

Some characters become your friends for life. That's how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.

It's not so much that I like him as a person God, but as a boy he's very handsome.

We are friends for life. When we're together the years fall away. Isn't that what matters? To have someone who can remember with you? To have someone who remembers how far you've come?

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

I love picture books. I think some of the best people in children's books are the ones who create their own picture books. I wish I could say I'm one of them, but I'm not.

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.

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

Why do they wait until sixth grade when you already know everything?

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 can't let safety and security become the focus of my life.

Librarians save lives by handing the right book at the right time to a kid in need.

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.

I love to watch movies.

Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it.

If you aren't any religion, how will you know if you should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center?

I made promises to you that I'm not sure I can keep.

Adult novels was the world of grownups. There was nothing about teenagers.

When I'm writing, I'm never trying to teach anything -- maybe I'm trying to illuminate.

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.

But if you aren't any religion, how are you going to know if you should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center?

When I was growing up in the 1950s, sweaters were a huge thing.

I am such a rewriter; I have so many notebooks filled with drafts you wouldn't believe.

Margaret was just my truth. It was what I knew to be true about sixth grade.

I stop and think before I start a new book and ask myself do I really want to spend the next year or two or three with these characters because if I don't, then I shouldn't be writing about them.

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 fell in love with books at the Elizabeth Public Library when I was four.

I'm very good at setting goals and deadlines for myself, so I don't really need that from outside.

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.

You've never been in love, she said. You don't understand. If being in love means giving up your freedom, not to mention your opportunities, Caitlin said, Then I haven't missed anything.

I never read the Bobbsey Twins or Boxcar Children.But I did remember being downtown, at the bookstore by myself and having an allowance and spending it on a Nancy Drew mysteries. And I was probably eleven, twelve.

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

Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. I just told my mother I want a bra. Please help me grow God. You know where.

I don't really know exactly how it happened but I don't like the idea that I would ever have said I'm going to write about racism or puberty or bullying.

I love movies, and theater, and kayaking, reading, biking, walking -- oh, and dancing. I love to dance!

I was sick all the time, one exotic illness after another, which lasted throughout my twenties. My worst decade. But from the day the first book was accepted, I never got sick again. Writing changed my life.

Isn't that interesting. All the book clubs. I've never belonged to one.

My characters live inside my head for a long time before I actually start a book. They become so real to me, I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Some people consider this weird. But my family understands.

Like my mother said, you can't go back to holding hands.

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