Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes
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I rewrite my books many times before submitting them, and after my editor takes a look I wind up rewriting some more! It's a good thing I learned at an early age to keep on trying. Stick to it, and eventually you'll get there.
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Part of my motivation for writing mysteries for young people is that I loved mysteries when I was growing up, and now that I'm on the creative end of things, I'm discovering that they're even more fun to write!
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I've run my whole life - for more than exercise, for mental health.
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What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn't be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure. Like a wolf and a whippet-only science would put them on the same tree.
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'Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss….' He turned to me. 'But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.'
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You can't be preachy - kids are allergic to messages.
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My mission as a writer is to give my readers hope to carry with them, and to promote a belief that they can do anything they set their minds to.
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What sort of person you grow into should not be achieved by default, and often that's exactly what happens to kids. I see literature as a method of guidance, information, and contemplation, and consider it the greatest compliment possible when a reader tells me that a book of mine really made him/her think.
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If you are interested in writing, get out and live your life! Do a lot. See a lot. Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to the different ways people speak. Read lots of different kinds of books. And then try writing in different voices and styles - don't be afraid to experiment.
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Writing is work. It takes a lot of contemplation, concentration, and out-and-out sweat. People tend to romanticize it, that somehow your work appears by benefit of some mystical external force. In reality, to be a writer, you have to sit down and write. It's work, and often it's hard work.
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I believe in the paramount importance of entertainment, but I have something to say.
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There are certain things I believe we need to keep in our emotional arsenal as we navigate through life. Hope is a big one. The more of that we can carry, the better.
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Don't even try to talk to me when I'm watching the moon. That's my moon, baby.
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I'd never looked at our house, or even our side of the street, and said, Oh! I wish we lived in the new development-those houses are so much newer, so much better! This is where I'd grown up. This was my home.
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'It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice, but the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.'
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I told about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. 'It's that way with people, too,' he said, 'only with people it's sometimes that the whole is less than the sum of the parts.'
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I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think I'm crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.
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...something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.
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'There's nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.'
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'Yeah, right. I know what's really going on: Heather's hired you to kill me, hasn't she?''Sammy!''Why else would you catapult me through the air and feed me to a man-eating cot?'
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I asked you to conquer your fear, but all you did was give in to it. If you were in love with her, that would be one thing. Love is something to be afraid of, but this, this is embarrassing. So she talks too much, so she's too enthused about every little thing, so what? Get in, get your question answered, and get out. Stand up to her, for cryin' out loud!'