For me one of the most important things is not feeling like you have to protect yourself if you're with a real friend. Rebecca Stead More Quotes by Rebecca Stead More Quotes From Rebecca Stead Boredom is what happens to people who have no control over their minds. Rebecca Stead boredom mind people Many of the books on my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars make people - including me -- happy. Rebecca Stead stars book people Like when that man was running down Broadway stark naked and we all had to eat in the cafeteria while the police tried to catch him. Rebecca Stead police running men Beautiful and fresh, Girl Saves Boy is full of the absolute truth-life is complicated. I could not put it down. Rebecca Stead girl beautiful boys Didn't you ever have a father yourself? You don't want him for a reason. You want him because he's your father.' So I figured it's because I never had a father that I don't want one now. A person can't miss something she never had. Rebecca Stead missing want father If you took every tear cried by everyone on earth on one single day and put them in a container, how big would that container need to be? Could you fill a water tower? Three water towers? It's one of those unknowable things. There has to be an answer, but we'll never know what it is. Rebecca Stead three tears water But every person has to learn to accept what has happened in the past. Without bitterness. Or there is no point in continuing with life. Rebecca Stead bitterness accepting past There's a great temptation to throw things in, as you put it, that you think are neat, or that you have a very clear, specific memory of and think you could do a good job writing about. What I find is that it's like a seed you plant. You can try it, and if it will grow and connect with other ideas in the book, and you can see connections that you can actually realize on the page, then you're allowed to leave it in. But if it just kind of lies there and doesn't really add up to anything or there's no chemistry with everything else going on in the book, then you have to take it out. Rebecca Stead memories book lying Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. Rebecca Stead moments sometimes mean I think I'm still fed by my childhood experience of reading, even though obviously I'm reading many books now and a lot of them are books for children but I feel like childhood reading is this magic window and there's something that you sort of carry for the rest of your life when a book has really changed you as a kid, or affected you, or even made you recognize something about yourself. Rebecca Stead reading book children I love a book that makes me ask questions about what I think or how I see the world or how I feel, so I hope that 'Goodbye, Stranger' is that kind of book for some people. Rebecca Stead book people thinking I never write with any kind of message, and I don't think that this book, 'Goodbye, Stranger' has a message in the capital M form of the word but I do hope it makes people ask themselves questions about what they think. Rebecca Stead writing book thinking I think that's why I wanted to write about seventh grade. I'd say seventh grade is a time when kids are really exploring a lot and becoming aware of the world around them in a deeper way. And they just have sort of have a wider appreciation of what's happening around them. They are seeing themselves from the outside more than they had before. Rebecca Stead writing appreciation kids I feel like there are stages in many, many people's childhoods when you don't have one good friend. It can happen a lot in sixth and seventh grade because that's when things are changing so quickly. It's like a desperate dash for some kind of acceptable identity, and it can get ugly. Rebecca Stead good-friend childhood identity I don't know whether I could visit a new neighborhood now and have a kid's set of observations about a place. I no longer can really think like a child, though I can remember thinking like one. Rebecca Stead remember children thinking I like to talk about weirdness. We all have strange thoughts and ideas, and when you really trust someone you can express them. And they can express them to you, and that's one of the joys of life. Rebecca Stead weirdness strange joy When something works for you, all you can do is cross your fingers and hope that it will work for someone else. Rebecca Stead I think if you can take something out and it doesn't change the book, it doesn't need to be there. Rebecca Stead book thinking I feel lucky that I read so many books as a kid because I know that no matter how much I appreciate a book now, and I can love a book very much, it's never going to be that childhood passion for a book. There's some element, something special about the way they're reading books and experiencing books that's finite. Rebecca Stead reading kids book I felt vulnerable and very much between friends. I remember walking down the hallway and thinking I had no way of knowing what was coming, literally. This wasn't because I had some horrific bullying story, but because of a steady drip of negativity. Rebecca Stead friends bullying walking thinking
