Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don't rent them out to tomorrow. Jerry Spinelli More Quotes by Jerry Spinelli More Quotes From Jerry Spinelli Because that's what you do, you stand up for your best friend. And you eat lunch with him and talk with him and share secrets and laugh a lot and go places and do stuff, and when you wake up in the morning, he's the first person you think of. Jerry Spinelli lunch morning thinking And so I'm me again, Leo. Thanks to the example of a five-year-old. I'm hoping you wouldn't want it any other way. Not that you weren't flattered, right? I mean, to have a girl two thousand miles away going to pieces over you, weeping at the mere memory of you, losing her appetite, losing herself and self-respect - well, that's trophy enough for any guy's ego, huh? Jerry Spinelli girl memories mean It's a shame publishers send rejection slips. Writers should get something more substantial than a slip that amounts to a pile of confetti. Publishers should send something heavier. Editors should send out rejection bricks, so at the end of a lot of years, you would have something to show besides a wheelbarrow of rejection slips. Instead you could have enough bricks to build a house. Jerry Spinelli rejection editors years The golden rule of writing is to write what you care about. If you care about your topic, you'll do your best writing, and then you stand the best chance of really touching a reader in some way. Jerry Spinelli touching care writing Angels and crows passed each other, one leaving, the other coming. Jerry Spinelli leaving angel death And the more you love someone, the safer it is to be mad at them. Love can handle mad, no problem. Jerry Spinelli mad problem love It (enchantment) started when the earth was born. It never stops. It is, always. It's just here. Jerry Spinelli stargirl enchantment earth Peer pressure is just that: pressure. Jerry Spinelli peer-pressure peers pressure You liked me." I smiled. "You were smitten with me. You were speechless to behold my beauty. You had never met anyone so fascinating. You thought of me every waking minute. You dreamed about me. You couldn't stand it. You couldn't let such wonderfulness out of your sight. You had to follow me." I turned to Cinnamon. He licked my nose. "Don't give yourself so much credit. It was your rat I was after." She laughed, and the desert sang. Jerry Spinelli desert sight giving Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey. Jerry Spinelli hill imagination memories life Sometimes I'm asked if I do research for my stories. The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first fifteen years of my life turned out to be one big research project. Jerry Spinelli my-life library research life Just because so many conforming kids wake up every morning asking, 'What is everybody else going to wear today?' doesn't mean that they don't wish it were different. Peer pressure is just that: pressure. Jerry Spinelli wake-up wish morning today I would say if you want to write, write what you care about. I think that's the most important thing. I think if you write what you care about, you stand a better chance of having the reader care about your story. Jerry Spinelli think you care chance Write about what you care about. If you do that, you're probably going to do your best writing, reach off the page and touch the reader. How are you going to make the reader care if you don't care yourself? Jerry Spinelli do-your-best yourself best you I've been writing since I was sixteen. At first, I wrote mostly short stories and poetry. The first thing I ever had published was a poem about a football game. It was printed in my local newspaper. Jerry Spinelli short game poetry football My first four books were not published because nobody wanted them. They were adult books, not kids' books. Jerry Spinelli adult books nobody because 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. You need to listen not so much to the audience but to the story itself. Jerry Spinelli end down think you I pointedly avoid doing sequels, since for the most part I find that a sequel rarely stands up to the original. Jerry Spinelli avoid find doing up Actually, between books is precisely when I do give myself vacations. Jerry Spinelli between books give myself When I was growing up, the first thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. That lasted till I was about ten. Then I wanted to be a baseball player. Preferably shortstop for the New York Yankees. Jerry Spinelli new growing-up baseball new-york