57+ Walter Dean Myers Quotes (Fiction, Activism And Empathy)

Walter Dean Myers was an American writer of children's books and young adult literature. He was the 2012–2013 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His works often addressed issues of racism and poverty, and he was known for his depictions of urban life.

Top 10 Walter Dean Myers Quotes

1. Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?
2. Cutting people out of your life is easy, keeping them in is hard.
3. Reading is not optional.
4. We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.
5. But in the end, we learn we can forgive most people. The cushion of mortality makes their wrongdoing seem less dark, and whatever roads they traveled seem less foolhardy.
6. They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can’t kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment.
7. Sometimes when things get hard, we tend to set our sights on what's hard, that difficult thing that keeps us upset, and we turn our back on our strengths.
8. Yeah, that's funny, huh?...Something hurts you real bad and you get used to it. Like being hurt becomes part of who you are.
9. I think it's difficult for young people to acknowledge being smart, to knowledge being a reader. I see kids who are embarrassed to read books. They're embarrassed to have people see them doing it.
10. Writers do not write what they know. They write what they can imagine.

Walter Dean Myers Short Quotes

• Idiots don't know they're idiots, which is unfortunate.
• You cannot live this life anymore without the ability to read.
• Each of us is born with a history already in place
• the beast is the monster that destroys your dream
• he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't guilty.
• Violence was just as much about WHAT was happening as it was how it happened.
• With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.
• How deep is your game?
• If you know you don't have a win, then there's no use for you being in the game.
• Think about all the tomorrows of your life.

Walter Dean Myers Famous Quotes And Sayings

I had seen the ballet of Swan Lake as a child but it was as an adult, when I saw a production featuring Erik Bruhn, that I first noticed how significant a part the ever-present threat of violence played. This juxtaposition of great beauty and grace with a backdrop of pure evil stayed with me for years. — Walter Dean Myers

No matter what...ball made my heart beat faster, made me want to jump up and down and be Superman. That's what life was about anyway, being Superman and living like life itself was important. Basketball made my life important. — Walter Dean Myers

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER. — Walter Dean Myers

And I see the - you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can't read now. And I know that when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they're not going to be able to make it in our society. — Walter Dean Myers

I'm not out here looking for no garbage cans to curl up in. I'm looking for the same good dreams everybody else is hoping for, but I don't see where they are. Or maybe I see where they are, but I don't see how to get there. — Walter Dean Myers

I read a lot of comic books and any kind of thing I could find. One day, a teacher found me. She grabbed my comic book and tore it up. I was really upset, but then she brought in a pile of books from her own library. That was the best thing that ever happened to me. — Walter Dean Myers

People told me to give up trying to be special and settle down to a regular life. There ain't nothing wrong with a regular life, and that's the Lord's truth...but it wasn't for me, because I wanted to be something special. I knew how easy it was for a dream to die. I seen that all around me. You could let it die by just looking the other way. — Walter Dean Myers

What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn't kill Mr. Nesbitt. — Walter Dean Myers

What some people wanted was sometimes too hard to get, and the stress of trying was sometimes too hard to deal with... Maybe doing well in life was just too hard for some people. — Walter Dean Myers

Everything in life is made up...You make up that you are happy. You make up that you are sad. You make up that you are in love. If you don't make up your own life, who's going to make it up for you? It's bad enough when you die and everybody can make up their own stories about you. —Mr. Hooft — Walter Dean Myers

It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . . guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and indeed are. — Walter Dean Myers

Wherever your heart rests There I will live and be blessed I've tried to line up the things I Needed to say but now my feelings just Tumble from me. I am half foolish, Half drunk with wanting you With wanting to take your hand And leap into the darkness of whatever Life will bring. Love makes me Brave and without love I'm made Nothing. — Walter Dean Myers

Looks to me like you've been making garbage for a while and dragging it with you. Now you need to get out of here, and that garbage is weighing you down. — Walter Dean Myers

My life is not packaged, Not tidy. There are leftover strands and jagged Edges that cut even my friends. — Walter Dean Myers

Yes, she is the fruit that will Sustain me and yes, she brings A rain that I know can chill But it is a rain so sweet and sings A song my soul insists That I follow, if I would exist As more than I have ever, ever been If my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin — Walter Dean Myers

The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out and someone is being beaten up and screaming for help. — Walter Dean Myers

The idea of voluntary segregation went against every value I had been taught. What did being born black have to do with excellence? — Walter Dean Myers

I think that if we can't go back, then we should try even harder to go forward. And I do want to go forward, to a place where loving someone because they have a gentle smile and a friendly hello is as easy as it once was. — Walter Dean Myers

But now, like a fallen sparrow On a golden chain, I'm forever bound in shadow, A prisoner to my pain. — Walter Dean Myers

Drew, your enemies can mess your life up,' he said. 'Or they can make it easy for you to do it to yourself.' —Fletch — Walter Dean Myers

We’re suggesting that [kids are] missing something if they don’t read but, actually, we’re condemning kids to a lesser life. If you had a sick patient, you would not try to entice them to take their medicine. You would tell them, ‘Take this or you’re going to die.’ We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional. — Walter Dean Myers

I know I'm tired of thinking about what I should have done yesterday. I know I'm just tired. If I knew what to do with my life, how to fix it up, I would have done it a long time ago. You can't dig that? You think I want to live like I'm somebody's throwaway? — Walter Dean Myers

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken — Walter Dean Myers

Each time I think there is no place lower to go, I find that there is at least one place that will mess you up worse than you were. — Walter Dean Myers

That's what's wrong with women. They want you to wait for them until they get ready and then they don't even tell you how they feel. — Walter Dean Myers

When I began to read, I began to exist — Walter Dean Myers

I was teased if I brought my books home. I would take a paper bag to the library and put the books in the bag and bring them home. Not that I was that concerned about them teasing me - because I would hit them in a heartbeat. But I felt a little ashamed, having books. — Walter Dean Myers

The movie is more real in so many ways than the life I am leading. No, that’s not true. I just desperately wish this was only a movie. — Walter Dean Myers

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct. — Walter Dean Myers

If anyone could look into my head See or feel the dread that has captured Me or see within this sad, unhappy brain They would only turn away Turn away. — Walter Dean Myers

And what I was feeling was the wonder Of being more than me, of being more Than mere here and now allowed I had become a shining star, a burning nova Exploded with love Flying through an endlessly Expanding universe Away from the me that was Toward a me that is beyond Understanding. — Walter Dean Myers

When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat. — Walter Dean Myers

What I do with my books is to create windows to my world that all may peer into. I share the images, the feelings and thoughts, and, I hope, the delight. — Walter Dean Myers

On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again — Walter Dean Myers

We all think we're different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us. — Walter Dean Myers

Forever in your arms Is where I want to be Holding you close Within the space That once held only me... Forever in your warmth The place for me and you I feel the sun Our life's just begun I know you feel it too — Walter Dean Myers

Can you become The hope I need? Can you help me be More than it is written in my future Or past? Is there another me to find? — Walter Dean Myers

Life Lessons by Walter Dean Myers

1. Walter Dean Myers taught us to never give up on our dreams, no matter how difficult they may seem. He also showed us the importance of using our voices to speak up for what we believe in and to fight for justice. Lastly, he highlighted the power of storytelling and its ability to create empathy and understanding between people.