I'm a goner, a kid who stays up half the night trying to figure out the horror of the world and trying to survive it. Deborah Wiles More Quotes by Deborah Wiles More Quotes From Deborah Wiles Life is full of surprises, but the biggest one of all is learning what it takes to handle them. Deborah Wiles life-is-full-of-surprises surprise life-is There are always scary things happening in the world. There are always wonderful things happening. And it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to approach the world…how you’re going to live in it, and what you’re going to do. Deborah Wiles up-to-you scary life Baseball is an art! A drama! A ballet without music! Let us give it a Greek chorus! Deborah Wiles baseball drama art The secret to not being afraid is to understand what scares you Deborah Wiles being-afraid scare secret Never talk back to a teacher. Teachers are like God. Actually, teachers are God's boss. Deborah Wiles boss teacher A hero can be afraid, but a hero never runs away. Deborah Wiles running-away hero running Telling stories with visuals is an ancient art. We've been drawing pictures on cave walls for centuries. It's like what they say about the perfect picture book. The art and the text stand alone, but together, they create something even better. Kids who need to can grab onto those graphic elements and find their way into the story. Deborah Wiles alone drawing together art Open your arms to life! Let it strut into your heart in all its messy glory! Deborah Wiles your messy heart life I always say that I take my life and turn it into story, and I certainly did that with 'Countdown'. Deborah Wiles my-life say story life I would lie in bed at night composing letters to Kennedy and Khrushchev, trying to convince them that they really didn't want to blow up the world. It seemed so simple to me that we just shouldn't hurt each other. Deborah Wiles me simple night world I am always telling students that a story is not just words. You can tell a story with dance or paint or music. Kids and adults are visual learners, auditory learners. There are those of us who need to touch it. Storytelling encompasses so much more than words on paper. Deborah Wiles i-am you music dance I want young readers to know that to tell their own story is the most important thing they'll ever do. Deborah Wiles own story know important As a children's author, you get to advocate for reading and writing in general, in a way an adult author might not be able to. It's a really interesting dance we do to get literature into the hands of young people and to help them to become literate and become readers; we want them to grow up reading and continue to do so when they're adults. Deborah Wiles you dance children people It's an extension of what I do also as part of making my living - I go into schools and work with kids on writing, and I do assembly programs often. Each one is different because each school has different requirements. Deborah Wiles go work writing school I loved everything about being ten, eleven, and twelve years old, and seem to make most of my heroines and heroes that age so I can reexperience all those pitfalls and wonderful discoveries. It helps me to figure out my own life when I write from that eleven year old place! Deborah Wiles loved me age life So often, we don't realize that the very moments in which we live become our history, our story. Deborah Wiles live story moments history A story shared back and forth is just about the most perfect symbiotic gift. It's a bit like love. No, it's a lot like love. Deborah Wiles gift story perfect love There's always something good to come out of disappointment: Comfort. Deborah Wiles good always disappointment comfort