I am not in touch with other writers. I don't have very much contact with other writers. I don't get invited to these things or I don't go to them. I hate panels. I speak to librarians and to conferences of English teachers. That's what I do: teachers and librarians. And high school kids.
The librarians that I've spoken to, the teachers and the librarians who really care and do advise parents and children of what's good and what's out there, they are very special. They have a kind of wisdom that a lot of people don't have.
I used to think great teachers inspire you. Now I think I had it wrong. Good teachers inspire you; great teachers show you how to inspire yourself every day of your life. They don't show you their magic. They show you how to make magic of your own.
Librarians lend people books from the library. The best librarians are children's book librarians.
Teachers have a chance to mold someone, inspire them. I hope all teachers realize that.
I was rescued by librarians. It was librarians who said 'maybe you would like to read The Hardy Boys as well as Nancy Drew.' It is true for me, as for so many countless others, that librarians saved my life, my internal life.
All the women in my life have been librarians, English teachers and book sellers.
In the '40s and '50s, a lot of teachers and librarians saw the graphic novel as the enemy of reading.
Librarians have always been among the most thoughtful and helpful people. They are teachers without a classroom.
I grew up a middle class, colonized child of teachers, and librarians and people, women especially, who treasured education.
I grew up a middle class, colonized child of teachers and librarians and people, women especially, who treasured education.
Anybody who puts a book into someone else's hands inspires me - teachers, librarians, booksellers, parents.
The real heroes are the librarians and teachers who at no small risk to themselves refuse to lie down and play dead for censors.
I know that I'll be writing for young adults for a long time. Mostly because I just love the readers and the teachers and librarians that I interact with.
Don't stop now. Go ahead! Be readers all of your lives. And don't forget, librarians and teachers can help you find the right books to read.
Acknowledgements With grateful thanks to the three least-appreciated and hardest-working proselytizers of the written word: independent bookstores, librarians, and teachers.