People got to do something useful if they're going to take up space in the world. Natalie Babbitt More Quotes by Natalie Babbitt More Quotes From Natalie Babbitt I was born and raised in Ohio. During my childhood, I spent most of my time drawing and reading fairy tales and myths. Natalie Babbitt ohio drawing reading the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for. Natalie Babbitt dog sorry summer Like all magnificent things, it's very simple. Natalie Babbitt magnificent simple philosophy Living's heavy work, but off to one side the way we are, it's useless, too. It don't make sense. If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I'd do it in a minute. You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road. Natalie Babbitt rocks useless dying I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact. Natalie Babbitt me childhood money mother I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a book illustrator. I used to hurry home from school and draw. Natalie Babbitt never home book school My husband wrote the story for my first book, but then he didn't want to do that anymore. So if I was going to go on being an illustrator, I had to start writing the stories, too. Natalie Babbitt story start husband book The first two books that I did by myself were long stories in verse. I knew I could do that because I'd written a lot in verse. But, verse stories are hard to sell, so my editor encouraged me to try writing in prose. Natalie Babbitt myself me writing long We human beings do a lot of dumb things, and war is certainly the dumbest. Natalie Babbitt human things dumb war I have always loved astronomy, and being an astronomer once lurked in the back of my mind. But I was never good at algebra. In fact, I flunked it twice in high school. Natalie Babbitt loved good mind school My mother was an artist, and I was fairly good at art as a child. I was always the best drawer in class, except in second grade when an artistic genius passed through our school! Natalie Babbitt best good mother art I grew up wanting only to be an illustrator. I studied art at Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College. Natalie Babbitt only college art school I write for children because I am interested in fantasy and the possibilities for experience of all kinds before the time of compromise. I believe that children are far more perceptive and wise than American books give them credit for being. Natalie Babbitt i-am experience time children
