Lisa Graff Quotes

United States, Author
October 26, 1974

I grew up in Big Bear, California, which is a ski resort town on top of a mountain (where there are no bears). One day when I was eight years old, I was whining to my mother that I was bored and she told me to "go write a story or something." An hour later I produced a five-page picture book entitled The Strangest Flower, chock-full of spelling mistakes and truly terrible crayon drawings of flowers floating in midair. I still have it.

I've been a children's book editor, a nanny, a camp counselor, a barista, a research lab assistant, and a movie theater ticket-taker.

Lisa Graff
- Children
- Book
- Movie
I have always had a ridiculous fear that I will walk into the bathroom one morning and find a python in my toilet.

Lisa Graff
- Fear
- Morning

My love of baking might have originated with my grandmother. She had a lemon tree growing in her backyard, and one of my favorite memories is of picking lemons together and then baking lemon bars.

Lisa Graff
- She
- Together
- Growing
I'd like to have a perfect sense of direction. I could get lost with a GPS strapped to my arm.

Lisa Graff
- Lost
- Perfect
I was the typical little sister who wanted to be just like her older brother. When I was growing up, my brother wrote phenomenal stories, so I wanted to write them, too.

Lisa Graff
- Up
- Growing
- Brother
When I was in fourth grade, I had a lot of upheaval in my life. Both of my parents remarried, and we all got new houses. That was also the year my older brother got very sick.

Lisa Graff
- Life
- Parents
- Brother
One of the things I like to do during an 'overhaul' revision is bust out my highlighters and colored pens. Tools like these make me feel like a real writer.

Lisa Graff
- Real
I desperately want to visit the Galapagos and meet some giant tortoises.

Lisa Graff

Kids know when you're pulling a fast one, storywise, and I think that even when they're being entertained, children want to hear the truth, just like adults do.

Lisa Graff
- Children
- Kids
- Truth
Being a writer can be a very lonely profession, but having a network of people who can sympathize with everything you're going through - from contract issues to the terror of changing your novel from past- to present-tense - is an invaluable asset.

Lisa Graff
- People
- Past
- Present
Kids are always told that they can be anything that they want. But what if you want to be a ballerina, and you're terrible at ballet? Or what if you're gifted at ballet, but you don't like doing it?

Lisa Graff
- Kids
- Ballet
The Longstockings are eight children's and young adult writers. We all came out of the New School MFA program, and we meet regularly to critique each other's work.

Lisa Graff
- Work
- Children
- School