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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Kind Book Voice Comedy Adults Intelligent Like Me Editors Happy Endings Quirky

Author:Elinor Lipman

“I don't think I prefer writing for one age group above another. I am just as pleased with a story which I feel works well for very small children as I do with a story for young adults.”

Thinking Feels Writing Wells Children Stories Age Young Groups Adults Young Adult Small Child

Author:Margaret Mahy

“A writer either speaks to adults and bores kids, or speaks to kids and upsets adults.”

Writing Kids Speak Adults Upset Bores

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“Now I don't really write for adults or kids - I don't write for kids, I write about them. I think you need to do that, otherwise you end up preaching down.”

Thinking Needs Writing Ends Kids Adults Preaching

Author:Jerry Spinelli

“It's hard for children's authors to be accepted when they try to write adult books. J.K. Rowling is the exception because people are so eager to read anything by her, but it took Judy Blume three or four tries before she had a success.”

People Writing Trying Children Book Hard Three Four Adults Accepted Exception

Author:R. L. Stine

“Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don't have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off.”

Writing Littles Persons Adults Teenager

Author:Zoe Saldana

“I used to be an editor and I was editing young adult series. I didn't really like the books that I was reading, so I decided that I would write a book about something I'd want to read if I was 16. It turned into a Cinderella story... I developed a proposal and the characters of 'Gossip Girl' for my job.”

Ifs Want Writing Book Character Stories Jobs Young Used Girl Reading Adults Decided Series Young Adult Used To Be Gossip Editors Editing Proposal Gossip Girl Cinderella Story

Author:Cecily von Ziegesar

“I wish that the adults who are 'in power' cared more about what their children read. Books are incredibly powerful when we are young - the books I read as a child have stayed with me my entire life - and yet, the people who write about books, for the most part, completely ignore children's literature.”

People Writing Children Book Young Literature Wish Powerful Adults Children's Literature

Author:Gabrielle Zevin

“I am committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. This means no bad language, no gratuitous or explicit violence, and no sexual content beyond what you might find in a PG-rated movie – expressions of who likes whom, holding hands, and perhaps the occasional kiss. The idea that we should treat sexual orientation itself as an adults-only topic, however, is absurd. Non-heterosexual children exist. To pretend they do not, to fail to recognize that they have needs for support and validation like any child, would be bad teaching, bad writing, and bad citizenship.”

“I published only in academic journals in philosophy until I was in my 40s, but I had been writing fiction and poetry my whole adult life - without ever once trying to publish it, and rarely letting anyone read it.”

Writing Trying Philosophy Whole Fiction Adults Academic Journal Publish Writing Fiction

Author:Cheryl Mendelson

“Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.”

Should Writing Children Book Literature Difficult Adults Complexes Bloody Counterparts Children Book

Author:Mark Haddon

“To me there's no difference between writing YA and adult except that in YA I make the book a little shorter and the protagonists are teens. The difference is in the readers.”

Writing Littles Book Differences Reader Adults Teens Protagonists

Author:Charles de Lint

“Of course all children's literature is not fantastic, so all fantastic books need not be children's books. It is still possible, even in an age so ferociously anti-romantic as our own, to write fantastic stories for adults: though you will usually need to have made a name in some more fashionable kind of literature before anyone will publish them.”

Needs Writing Kind Children Made Stills Book Stories Age Courses Literature Names Adults Fantastic Publish Fashionable Children's Books Children's Literature

Book:On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

Source: On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature