Judi Quotes

Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

Our finger prints don't fade from the lives we touch.

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

Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Beauty fades, dumb is forever.

That's not a bad word...hate and war are bad words, but fuck isn't.

[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.

The truth will make you odd.

You know what I hate? The outdoors. I mean, generally. I don't like outside. I'm an inside person. I'm all about refrigeration and indoor plumbing and Judge Judy.

Not everything has to have a point. Some things just are.

Snoring keeps the monsters away.

some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people.

How strange when an illusion dies. It's as though you've lost a child.

My mother always told me I wouldn't amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said, 'Just wait.

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.

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

I've always taken 'The Wizard of Oz' very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it.

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.

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

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

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

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

Precious Child... nothing matters but the moment. There might be no tomorrow and even if there is, nobody gives a damn.

My ears are too beeg for my head. My head ees too beeg for my body. I am not a Siamese cat ... I AM A CHIHUAHUA!" -- Skippyjon Jones (In his very best Spanish accent)

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

Rich people, thought Judy—she thought this then, and she thinks it now—generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs.

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

I love you, Michael Wagner.” “Forever?” he asked. “Forever,” I said.

It's much more entertaining to live books than to write them.

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?

Without peanut butter, I might starve.

I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.

Things change…things happen…things you can’t even imagine when you’re young and full of hope.

If we didn't have the storms, we'd never get to play in the waves.

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

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

She shook off the self-recrimination. What-ifs and could-have-beens were not the way to move forward. She knew that from experience.

If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom." -Judy Deck in an e-mail sent to Chris Rose

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

What's the point of thinking about how it's going to end when it's just the beginning?

My name is Skippito Friskito. (clap-clap) I fear not a single bandito. (clap-clap) My manners are mellow, I'm sweet like the Jell-o, I get the job done, yes indeed-o. (clap-clap)

When the fighter steps into the ring, she knows deep in her heart when she looks out into the crowd that there are people who wish to see her fall. Win or loose the fighter...will always get back up again.

Grief has a taste, bitter and lingering, but so soft it sometimes disguises itself as sweetness.

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

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

If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true.

Judy, I read that you said your first memory was music. Music that fills up a home. And one day, suddenly the music could escape through a window. For the rest of your life, you had to chase it.

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

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...

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

Few humans see fairies or hear their music, but many find fairy rings of dark grass, scattered with toadstools, left by their dancing feet.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

I loved him like a fever. Then he left. He kicked through love like it was dust and he kept on walking.

Well, we have a whole new year ahead of us. And wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, a little more loving, and have a little more empathy, and maybe, next year at this time we'd like each other a little more.

Eat it or wear it

If you tell the truth, then you don't have to have a good memory

I drove in last night,' he said. 'I couldn't sleep, it was too hot. So I went outside. I was feeling melancholy. Then I danced with a beautiful girl, and I felt better. What's your story?

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

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.

God did not call the qualified to serve Him: instead He qualified the called.

Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.

Life is a series of unlikely events, isn’t it? Hers certainly is. One unlikely event after another, adding up to a rich, complicated whole. And who knows what’s still to come?

Aching familiar in a way that made me wish I was still eight. Eight was before death or divorce or heartbreak. Eight was just eight. Hot dogs and peanut butter, mosquito bites and splinters, bikes and boogie boards. Tangled hair, sunburned shoulders, Judy Blume, in bed by nine thirty.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of being a second-rate version of someone else.

You are the gold and Love is within your heart.

There is a difference between living the suffering and reading about it.

I wanted to tell him that I will never be sorry for loving him. That in a way I still do - that maybe I always will. I'll never regret one single thing we did together because what we had was very special. Maybe if we were ten years older it would have worked out differently. Maybe. I think it's just that I'm not ready for forever.

I knew that the deepest of tragedies was simple: to love, and not to be loved in return.

When a family breaks you don't hear the crack of the breaking. You don't hear a sound.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else

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

I understood the word 'swoon'. It felt that way, like 'sweep' and 'moon' and 'woo', all those words smashed together in one word that stood for that feeling, right then.

I loved all the parts of him, even the ones I didn't understand.

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.

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

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 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.

As long as she loves me and I love her, what difference does religion make?

How can I give another part of myself to someone else, when I already have so little to give?

Thus they went along, Punch and Judy, attracting each other and repelling, as love must do if it is not to end up as calendar art or a pop tune.

Secrets are like plants. They can stay buried deep in the earth for a long time, but eventually they'll send up shoots and give themselves away. They have to. It's their nature. Just a tiny green stem at first. Which slowly, insidiously grows taller, stronger, unfolding itself, until there it is. A big fat secret, right in front of your face; a fully bloomed flower perfumed with the scent of deception.

Seriously, I’m totally weirded out by the girly nature of this conversation. And yet, it’s kinda like you’re growing up. Do you think Judy Blume made a book about adolescent vampires? Are You There God, It’s Me, Merit?” Mallory snorted, obviously pleased with herself.

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

For twas not into my ear you whispered, But into my heart. Twas not my lips you kissed, But my soul.

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.

Anything could go wrong any day of the week. What’s the point of worrying in advance?

Twas not my lips you kissed But my soul

The point is, you need to distinguish between what honestly moves you and what the world is telling you should melt your heart. If something doesn’t reach you on a personal level, let it go. It’s hard enough dealing with everything that does.

But while I'd be their daughter, while I'd eat the roast and come home from dates and wash the dishes, I would also be myself. I would love my mother, but I'd never want to be her again. I would never be what someone else wanted me to be. I would never laugh at a joke I didn't think was funny. I would never tell another lie. I would be the truth-teller, starting today. That would be tough. But I was tougher.

We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by reality.

If you can work anywhere, anytime, then pretty soon you're working everywhere all the time.

Staying alive, as it turns out, is mostly common sense.

Mom brought me some peanut butter cookies and a biography of Judy Garland. She told me she thought my problem was that I was too impatient, my fuse was too short, that I was only interested in instant gratification. I said, “Instant gratification takes too long.” The glib martyr.

A new adaptation of Jane Eyre came out every year, and every year it was exactly the same. An unknown actress would play Jane, and she was usually prettier than she should have been. A very handsome, very brooding, very 'ooh-la-la' man would play Rochester, and Judi Dench would play everyone else.

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

God designed each one of us for His purpose-and God doesn't make junk.

Sex is a commitment...Once you're there you can't go back to holding hands...and when you give yourself both mentally and physically...well, you're completely vulnerable.

There are no emergency autopsies,” another resident pointed out to me. “Your patients never complain. They don’t page you during dinner. And they’ll still be dead tomorrow.

I want you to know it was no big deal...those movies showing women screaming in labor are plain bullshit....there's nothing to it...you just push and push and finally the baby pops out...to tell you the truth I don't even rember that much about it except there was a very nice guy standing over me and every time a strong contraction started he gave me a whiff of gas...

You have to write about what keeps you up at night.

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

your opinion of me is none of my business.

I still get angry when older people assume that everyone in my generation, screws around. They're probably the same ones who think all kids use dope. It's true that we are more open than our parents but that just means we accept sex and talk about it. It doesn't mean we are all jumping into bed together.

Truth, justice...I always thought they were absolutes, like God. And Mom. And apple pie. But you could make apple pie from Ritz crackers. You could make cakes without sugar. We learned how to fake things, during the war.

It's true that we are more open than our parents but that just means we accept sex and talk about it. It doesn't mean we are all jumping in bed together.

Lions and tigers, and bears, oh my! - Dorothy in Wizard of Oz (1939)

Suppose there aren't any more A + days once you get to be twelve? Wouldn't that be something! To spend the rest of your life looking for an A + day and not finding it.

When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses--not zebras.' In other words, most things are exactly what they seem, and the simplest answer is usually the right one.

Human hands make mistakes, Ning, but they are the hands the gods gave us. We use them to make amends, to do good things.

Caitlyn isn't someone to get over. She's someone to come to terms with, the way you have to come to terms with your parents, your siblings. 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.

Books have survived television, radio, talking pictures, circulars (early magazines), dailies (early newspapers), Punch and Judy shows, and Shakespeare's plays. They have survived World War II, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and the fall of the Roman Empire. They even survived the Dark Ages, when almost no one could read and each book had to be copied by hand. They aren't going to be killed off by the Internet.

The magic is not in the ceremony of pouring the tea or the sharing of the cup. It is in the connection, the brief joining of souls. The tea leaves are a channel, the ingredients the signposts.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland

The commonplace becomes exceptional when God is involved.

Being homesick is good─it means I am happy in my real life.

I'll rescue you ten times over if I will be kissed like that every time

Loss. Thats what it was, a hole I could never fill. It would be bottomless.

Keep busy, Sandy ... when you're busy you don't have time to brood ..." "Life should be more than keeping busy." "Maybe it should be, but for most of us, it's not.

but you don’t want your fears to limit your possibilities.

This is Karma. I'm a bitch. Can you think of anyone who deserves a bitch slap?" My phone buzzes again. "If so meet at Judy Blue Eyes, 2am. If not, sit back and enjoy the show.

The Internet," [Judy] Singer said, "is a prosthetic device for people who can't socialize without it." For anyone challenged by language and social rules, a communication system that does not operate in real time is a godsend.

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.

Mereka bagaikan mata-mata pena yang menari di atas lemabaran kertas yang sama, lembaran kertas hitam. Dan hanya keberuntungan yang bisa membuat kertas itu menjadi abu-abu, karena tidak mungkin membuatnya menjadi putih bersih. Jejak hitam itu tetap ada di jalan hidup mereka. Bagi anak-anak seperti mereka, hidup benar-benar seperti mata dadu di meja judi.

You weren’t always born to the right parents. And parents didn’t necessarily get the kids they were meant to raise.

A turquoise given by a loving hand carries with it happiness and good fortune." Arabic proverb

The first thing I learned from Judy Blume was that God is the wrong one to ask for bigger breasts. (Stephanie Lessing)

I haven't met loads of asshole only children. If you fill a room with all the assholes you know, I bet that most of them have siblings.

So repeat after me: I resolve to embrace my sexuality and my freedom to do with my body parts as I see fit. And I will learn about my body so I can take care of it and get the pleasure I deserve. I will share that information with anyone and everyone, and not police the usage of any vagina but my own. So help me Judy Blume.

-Asti boga, barba Smoje.... -Šta se dogodilo? -A vi čitate ćirilicu! -E pa otkad! Jema već šezdeset godin. -A zašto? -Zato šta je znan. Da znan kineška oli arapska slova, čita bi i kineski i arapski. -Ali ta su slova laživa. -Jednako ka naša. Ne lažu, Luka slova, nego judi, judi lažu.

How easy it is to be bitter or angry; that's when you're at your weakest! But when you choose to be kind, to forget your hurt, that's when you find within the greatest strength of all.

She figured out that the only way 
to keep from being frozen was to 
stay in motion, and long ago converted
 most of her flesh into liquid. Now when she
 smells danger, she spills herself all over,
 like gasoline, and lights it.


Captain Roberts went to Heaven, which wasn't everything that he'd expected, and as the receding water gently marooned the wreck of the Sweet Judy on the forest floor, only one soul was left alive. Or possibly two, if you like parrots.

I suppose that the moral of this story is that trying to copy another woman, even a woman from the Bible, is almost always a bad idea. As Judy Garland liked to say, " Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.

A person can have a happy and fulfilling life without children.

Mine is a gruesome job, but for a scientist with a love for the mechanics of the human body, a great one.

But the distance between us is too far, as vast as the divide between brothers who fought for a throne, or gods who tore apart a continent.

never be a second-rate version of someone else, be a first-rate version of yourself

Green means you're green with envy. Green means you wish you were me.

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

It's funny how you can grow away from your friends, when just a few years ago they were the most important people in your life.

I started writing to make sense of the world that exists inside my heart

Censors don’t want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his/her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty.

Faith seems to grab people and not let go, but hope is a double-crosser. It can beat it on you anytime; it's your job to dig in your heels and hang on. Must be nice to have hope in your pocket, like loose change you could jingle through your fingers.

Dear Judy Blume, why didn’t you write a book about how to survive talking to your centuries-old, super-duper experienced, smoking-hot soul mate about sex for the first time ever? That book would have been extremely helpful in preparing me for this incredibly awkward situation.

My sister, Judy, has always said that she would like to lie in state, propped up in her coffin with her eyes blared wide open, face fixed in a big grin, and have a taped greeting for all her mourners. Something real upbeat and, well, live-sounding, like: 'He-e-e-ey!Cuteshoestellyomamahi!

As a young person, I feel it necessary to show the great nation that we live in that there doesn't need to be this kind of violence and hatred in our world. And that loving one another doesn't mean that we have to compromise our beliefs; it simply means that we choose to be compassionate and respectful of others.

I think journalism anywhere should be based on social justice and impartiality, making contributions to society as well as taking responsibility in society. Whether you are capitalist or socialist or Marxist, journalists should have the same professional integrity. --Tan Hongkai

Opposites attract but only to torture each other.

To confront death every day, to see it yourself, you have to love the living.

I am not scared of you, I am scare of these feelings.

You better get used to it. You're going to be on the ground a lot today, but cheer up... tomorrow you'll be an expert.

...Sometimes spending a lot of time together can end a romance faster than anything else.

hi I hope u want to be my friends

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” —Judy Garland

Leslie called them Judy and Bill, which bothered Jess more than he wanted it to. It was none of his business what Leslie called her parents. But he just couldn’t get used to it.

We all believe we are the center of the universe, but we forget we are merely specks among the stars. Moving through the streams of possible futures, sometimes colliding.

As a kid, Vix had had some warped idea that grownup meant having a job and living on your own. It meant no one could tell you what to eat, or what to wear, or how to behave. It meant that it was okay to have sex with guys. What a joke!

I decide to hone my joy. I dance around the kitchen to Judy Garland’s Greatest Hits on the turntable. The sun on my chest, I spin in my socks. Bruised, exhausted, and fluttering back to earth.

It took me a while to see that the contrast between the racism directed at Billie and the compassion offered to addicted white stars like Judy Garland was not some weird misfiring of the drug war—it was part of the point.

Here, the sea strains to climb up on the land and the wind blows dust in a single direction. The trees bend themselves all one way and volcanoes explode often Why is this? Many years back a woman of strong purpose passed through this section and everything else tried to follow.

As I look back over the other best friendships I've had that also ended, I wonder if, in addition to simply having a finite amount of time for such intimacy, we also have certain periods in our lives in which we seek out people who seem to embody the things we lack. Then, when we gain those things for ourselves, we no longer need that friend in the same way, which causes a serious dissonance in the relationship. Perhaps this is why these particular friendships burn so bright and then disappear so completely.

How do you stop yourself from worrying?” “I think of all the good things in my life.” “What about the bad things?” “There’s no room for them inside my head. Not anymore. Now I say live and let live, and I kick those other thoughts away.

We belong to each other now really and truly, no make-believe. Doesn't it seem queer for me to belong to someone at last? It seems very, very sweet. And I shall never let you be sorry for a single instant. Yours, for ever and ever, Judy

Everyone is born and they die, but it's the memories they leave behind that define them and let them live on than others.

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.

Terrible things can happen in this life but being in love changes everything. It gives you something to hold on to.

It had never occurred to me that I could do something without permission. 'May I' was a way of life for a girl like me.

always be a first-rate version of your self instead of a second-rate version of someone else.

If you're going to hit a car, try to be sure that it's not a cop car

Treat your family like guests and your guests like family.

You've got to enjoy whatever you can and forget about the rest.

Are you still there God? It’s me, Margaret. I know you’re there God. I know you wouldn’t have missed this for anything! Thank you God. Thanks an awful lot.…

Now that’s my point about my mother. I mean, if she understands so much about me then why couldn’t she understand that I had to wear loafers without socks?

If you can feel someone else’s suffering, how can you look away?

it’s not about being childish – that’s different – it’s being childlike, maintaining your sense of wonder.

Oh, yes—that thing about house cats is true. Your faithful golden retriever might sit next to your dead body for days, starving, but the tabby won’t. Your pet cat will eat you right away, with no qualms at all. Like any opportunistic scavenger, it will start with your eyeballs and lips.

Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn't always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.

Because men have a history, it is difficult for them to imagine what it is like to grow up without one, or the sense of personal expansion that comes from discovering that we women have a worthy heritage. Along with pride often comes rage – rage that one has been deprived of such a significant knowledge.

In Judaism, it is taught that there are three stages of grief to be endured. First there is weeping, for we all must weep for what we have lost. Second comes silence, for in the silence we understand solace, beauty, and comfort from something greater than ourselves. Third comes singing, for in singing we pour out our hearts and regain our voice.

When you’re told since you came out of the womb that you can do anything, why would you ever hesitate? If you were told at birth that the world is supposed to bow down to you, you would think it natural that you are destined to climb

Some people never get over their first loves. They spend their whole lives trying to recapture the thrill. Sometimes, after fifty years they get back together. They meet at some reunion or other and realize they were meant to be together.

I would tell young journalists to be brave and go against the tide. When everyone else is relying on the internet, you should not; when nobody's walking, you should walk; when few people are reading profound books, you should read. ... rather than seeking a plusher life you should pursue some hardship. Eat simple food. When everyone's going for quick results, pursue things of lasting value. Don't follow the crowd; go in the opposite direction. If others are fast, be slow. -- Jin Yongquan

God, all those months of seeing Kelsey’s pictures and hearing about her travels, and I had been raging with jealousy. And now it was my turn. I wanted to mind the gap at the tube station and eat fish and chips and try to make the Queen’s guards laugh. I wanted to see Big Ben and the Globe and the London Bridge and Dame Judi Dench. Or Maggie Smith. Or Alan Rickman. Or Sir Ian McKellen. Or anybody famous and British, really. Holy crap. This was really happening. And I wasn’t just a tourist. I was visiting with someone who’d grown up in the city. With my fiancé. Take that, world.

When Miri asked if she believed in God, what was she supposed to say? 'Of course I believe in God,' she'd told her. 'But how could God let such a terrible thing happen?' 'It's not God's job to decide what happens,' she'd said. 'It's his job to help you through it.

Secret ceremonies in which malevolent men and women cloaked in hooded robes, hiding behind painted faces and chanting demonic incantations while inflicting sadistic wounds on innocent children lying on makeshift alters, or tied to inverted crosses, sounds like the stuff of which B-grade horror movies are made. Some think amoral religious cults only populate the world of Rosemary's Baby, but don't exist in real life. Or, do they? Ask Jenny Hill.

I think that of all the principles for journalism, the most important is to complicate simple things and simplify complicated things. At first sight, you may think something is simple, but it may conceal a great deal. However, facing a very complex thing, you should find out its essence. -Jin Yongquan

Paris and Helen He called her: golden dawn She called him: the wind whistles He called her: heart of the sky She called him: message bringer He called her: mother of pearl barley woman, rice provider, millet basket, corn maid, flax princess, all-maker, weef She called him: fawn, roebuck, stag, courage, thunderman, all-in-green, mountain strider keeper of forests, my-love-rides He called her: the tree is She called him: bird dancing He called her: who stands, has stood, will always stand She called him: arriver He called her: the heart and the womb are similar She called him: arrow in my heart.

I’m going to be a model of fearlessness. And when people spew fear, I’m going to stand with an invisible shield around me and let their comments zing off my shield, and I will say to myself ‘not in my world!’ because in my world, people do take risks, and people do try to make things better and they never say die!

Keep your life simple and stylish and earnest. Do good and donate your time and money to something you care about. Make people laugh. Be frank. Always give people a second chance—but rarely a third. Live light, travel light, and be light. Forget shit and move on. Make everyone you love feel loved. Waste not, want not. Reuse stuff. Stop trying to get a tan and straighten your hair—you’re just not made that way. Go to the movies, go to the library, go to the park. Try to make every day feel as close to a vacation as possible. Floss.

A couple of years ago my sister Judy and I were each given a box of truffles. The tiny print said two pieces contained 310 calories and there were six pieces in each box. We were sitting on the bus headed downtown, quietly doing our calculations: Judy was dividing by two and I was multiplying by three. When she realized what I was doing, a look came over her face that is hard to describe. 'I lost all hope for you' she says now.

I used to think the most important thing for a reporter was to be where the news is and be the first to know. Now I feel a reporter should be able to effect change. Your reporting should move people and motivate people to change the world. Maybe this is too idealistic. Young people who want to be journalists must, first, study and, second, recognize that they should never be the heroes of the story. ..A journalist must be curious, and must be humble. --Zhou Yijun

And then all that has divided us will merge And then compassion will be wedded to power And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind And then both men and women will be gentle And then both women and men will be strong And then no person will be subject to another's will And then all will be rich and free and varied And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many And then all will share equally in the Earth's abundance And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old And then all will nourish the young And then all will cherish life's creatures And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.

In a New York Post interview, Judy Blume, author of young-adult fiction, gave this advice on getting your kids to read: “Moms come up to me at book signings and describe how they’re telling their daughters, ‘These were my favorite books,’ ” she says. “I say, ‘Quit it! That’s the biggest turnoff!’ “You want to get them to read them, leave them around the house and every so often, say, ‘You’re not ready to read this yet.’ 

On this particular autumn night, only the prospect of another solitary evening lies before her. She will fry her chop and read herself to sleep, no doubt with a tale of wizardry and romance. Then, in dreams that strike even her as trite, Miss Dark will go adventuring in chain mail and silk. Tomorrow morning she will wake up alone, and do it all again. Poor Judy Dark! Poor little librarians of the world, those girls, secretly lovely, their looks marred forever by the cruelty of a pair of big black eyeglasses!

Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before. I have forgotten their names — Jaqueline, I think, or else Consuela or Gloria or Judy or June, and their last names were either the melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalists whose cousins, if pressed, they would confess themselves to be.

While I was washing my face, I began to cry. The tears mingled easily with the cold water, in the luminous, dripping crimson of my cupped fingers, and at first I wasn't aware that I was crying at all. The sobs were regular and emotionless, as mechanical as the dry heaves which had stopped only a moment earlier; there was no reason for them, they had nothing to do with me. I brought my head up and looked at my weeping reflection in the mirror with a kind of detached interest. What does this mean? I thought. I looked terrible. Nobody else was falling apart; yet here I was, shaking all over and seeing bats like Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend. A cold draft was blowing in the window. I felt shaky but oddly refreshed. I ran myself a hot bath, throwing in a good handful of Judy's bath salts, and when I got out and put on my clothes I felt quite myself again. Nihil sub sole novum, I thought as I walked back down the hail to my room. Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness...

All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak Brian’s Hunt by Gary Paulsen Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis The Call of the Wild by Jack London The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The Giver by Lois Lowry Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Hatchet by Gary Paulsen The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Holes by Louis Sachar The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I Am LeBron James by Grace Norwich I Am Stephen Curry by Jon Fishman Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson LeBron’s Dream Team: How Five Friends Made History by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger The Lightning Thief  (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Number the Stars by Lois Lowry The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The River by Gary Paulsen The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (written by many authors) Star Wars series (written by many authors) The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess (Dork Diaries) by Rachel Renée Russell Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle