Judy Blume Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.

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

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.

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

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?

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Eat it or wear it

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

A person without curiosity may as well be dead.

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.

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 …

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

hi I hope u want to be my friends

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!

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.

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

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

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.’ 

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?

Be careful,' Irene warned Miri. 'All boys want the same thing.' So do girls, Miri thought.

It’s not God’s job to decide what happens,” she’d said. “It’s his job to help you get

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

Not that memories were enough—they didn’t keep you warm on a cold winter’s night. They couldn’t hold you when you were frightened or sad. But they were better than nothing.

Nights are the worst. You just don't know what it's like for me, trying not to think of [him]...knowing that we're going to be apart for so long. It's pure torture.

...love at thirteen is nothing like love at eighteen.

I twirl my ring and think about what Judy has tried so hard to say: You are not any one thing. You are many. Don't let them make you believe that this is an either/or world. - Laura Ruby

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.

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.

...this two-way hatred. I don’t understand it. I wonder how much of it is caused by fear?

I can't think when you're in here," he said. "What do you have to think about?" "Making!

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.…

Understand that you’re sensitive.” Miri was proud for coming up with such a good word. “Is that like saying I’m dramatic, or crazy?” Miri was careful now. “Sensitive is better than dramatic, and it’s definitely not as bad as crazy.

I stole Judy Blume's 'Forever' from my sister when I was eight,' I say. 'I figured if it was by the author of 'Superfudge', it had to be good. Well, I soon realized why she kept it under her bed. I'm not sure I understood it all, but I thought it was unfair that the boy would name his, um, organ, and the girl wouldn't name hers. So I decided to give mine a name.' Rhiannon is laughing. "What was its name?' "Helena. I introduced everyone to her at dinner that night. It went over really well.

My generation was obsessed with scoliosis. Judy Blume dedicated an entire novel to it. At least once a month we would line up in the gym, lift our shirts, and bend over, while some creepy old doctor ran his finger up and down our spines. Nuclear war was a high-concept threat, two words that often rang out in political speeches or on the six o-clock news. Our spines. Lice. Nuclear war. The Big Three.

Book banning satisfied their need to feel in control of their children's lives. Those who censored were easily frightened. They were afraid of exposing their children to ideas different from their own. Afraid to answer children's questions or talk with them about sensitive subjects.

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. What would you think of me doing a project on religion? You wouldn’t mind, would you God? I’d tell you all about it. And I won’t make any decisions without asking you first. I think it’s time for me to decide what to be. I can’t go on being nothing forever, can I?

At their core, Tiger Eyes, Forever..., and Sally J. Freeman are all books about teenage issues, but to an adult reader, the parents' story lines seem to almost overshadow their daughters. I'm bringing an entirely new set of experiences to these novels now, and my reward is a fresh set of story lines that i missed the first time around. I'm sure that in twenty or thirty years I'll read these books again and completely identify with all the grandparent characteristics. That's the wonderful thing about Judy Blume - you can revisit her stories at any stage in life and find a character who strikes a deep chord of recognition. I've been there, I'm in the middle of this, someday that'll be me. The same characters, yet somehow completely different. (Beth Kendrick)

What I worry about most is the loss to young people. If no one speaks out for them, if they don't speak out for themselves, all they'll get for required reading will be the most bland books available. And instead of finding the information they need at the library, instead of finding the novels that illuminate life, they will find only those materials to which nobody could possibly object.

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--all because of fear. How many have resorted to self-censorship? How many are saying to themselves, "Nope ... can't write about that. Can't teach that book. Can't have that book in our collection. Can't let my student write that editorial in the school paper.

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