Quotes from Andrew Clements

Jake Drake is such a teacher's pet that he even eats lunch with one!

Girls like the boys that they're always mad at, or shoving, or turning their heads away from, or sticking their tongues out at. Never fails.

The highest praise is when a kid says, 'This book feels so real; this could have happened at my school.'

I get wonderful letters from kids and teachers. I must have the best readers in the world.

It is not good to have TOO MUCH of anything.

Part of being a fiction writer is being able to imagine how someone else is thinking and feeling. I think I've always been good at that.

I had a high school English teacher who made me really work at writing. And once, when I got an assignment back, she'd written: 'This is so good, Andrew. This should be published!' That made a big impression on me.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't three lefts make a right? Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't two negatives make a positive?

Because a real kiss, a kiss that two real people choose to give each other - it's something that can't be filmed or photographed or drawn, or even described with words. Because a kiss isn't what it looks like or how it feels. A real kiss happens down deep inside of two hearts at the same time. It's hidden away. A real kiss is invisible.

But fear doesn't need doors and windows. It works from the inside.

Darkness is only light's absence.

Sooner or later,reality does occor and when it does, all the lies show up, like blood on snow.

who says dog means dog?

Dave couldn't remember the last time a grownup had apologized to him.

It is not good to have TOO MUCH of anything.

I have my own story, and I love my story, but I know I can't tell it alone, not now. Because stories have centers, but they don't have edges. No boundaries.

Watch TV or something. That's what the note says. So I say to myself, Fine. But I think I'll do the or something part.

I glance into the faces of all these people out for a Sunday stroll, but I'm not seeing eyes and noses and mouths. I'm seeing stories. Every person has a story. All the hopes and dreams. And fears. And secrets. In every face.

A singing goat is like reading books, I love goats and dinosaurs.-Albert Einstein

Darkness is only light's absence. -Things that Are

I almost tell him that I'd never be able to do something like that, just take out my instrument and begin playing on a street corner. But it feels to personal. Yes, I'm shy, but why bring it to his attention? I'm too shy to talk about how shy I am.

And I love Jane Austen's use of language too--the way she takes her time to develop a phrase and gives it room to grow, so that these clever, complex statements form slowly and then bloom in my mind. Beethoven does the same thing with his cadence and phrasing and structure. It's a fact: Jane Austen is musical. And so's Yeats. And Wordsworth. All the great writers are musical.

It's about 65 degrees, so it feels like when the air conditioner is up on high. I can bear it, so I'm going for a walk. Today. Right now. In the sunshine. Because I can. Because I want to. Because I'm not going to just sit around and wait for stuff to happen anymore. I'm still me, and I have a life. It's a weird life, but it's still mine. It's still mine.

But of course, all of this is just a silly fad, and when you add an e to fad, you get fade. And I predict this fad will fade.