We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional. Walter Dean Myers More Quotes by Walter Dean Myers More Quotes From Walter Dean Myers People told me to give up trying to be special and settle down to a regular life. There ain't nothing wrong with a regular life, and that's the Lord's truth...but it wasn't for me, because I wanted to be something special. I knew how easy it was for a dream to die. I seen that all around me. You could let it die by just looking the other way. Walter Dean Myers giving-updreampeople As a kid I didn't see black cowboys on the screen. What that said to me was that there were things I couldn't do or be because of my color. What we see others like us do gives us permission to expand our own horizons. Walter Dean Myers cowboycolorkids On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again Walter Dean Myers who-i-amtakencities But now, like a fallen sparrow On a golden chain, I'm forever bound in shadow, A prisoner to my pain. Walter Dean Myers shadowpainforever If you know you don't have a win, then there's no use for you being in the game. Walter Dean Myers usegameswinning That's what's wrong with women. They want you to wait for them until they get ready and then they don't even tell you how they feel. Walter Dean Myers readywaitingwant Looks to me like you've been making garbage for a while and dragging it with you. Now you need to get out of here, and that garbage is weighing you down. Walter Dean Myers garbagelooksneeds Yes, she is the fruit that will Sustain me and yes, she brings A rain that I know can chill But it is a rain so sweet and sings A song my soul insists That I follow, if I would exist As more than I have ever, ever been If my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin Walter Dean Myers mothersongsweet I think that if we can't go back, then we should try even harder to go forward. And I do want to go forward, to a place where loving someone because they have a gentle smile and a friendly hello is as easy as it once was. Walter Dean Myers loving-someonetryingthinking Within the black community, roughly 60 percent of children are born to single moms. Moms don't have the emotional wherewithal to deal with their children. Their English is atrocious. Their speaking is atrocious. The dropout rate is horrendous. Walter Dean Myers emotionalmomchildren Can you become The hope I need? Can you help me be More than it is written in my future Or past? Is there another me to find? Walter Dean Myers helpingpastneeds And what I was feeling was the wonder Of being more than me, of being more Than mere here and now allowed I had become a shining star, a burning nova Exploded with love Flying through an endlessly Expanding universe Away from the me that was Toward a me that is beyond Understanding. Walter Dean Myers expanding-universestarsshining I keep threatening to keep a formal journal, but whenever I start one it instantly becomes an exercise in self-consciousness. Instead of a journal I manage to have dozens of notebooks with bits and pieces of stories, poems, and notes. Almost every thing I do has its beginning in a notebook of some sort, usually written on a bus or train. Walter Dean Myers notebookselfexercise I admired the work ethic of the cowboys I read about. The idea of these young people taking on this much responsibility was impressive. I would like modern readers to have an appreciation of this. Walter Dean Myers cowboyresponsibilityappreciation We all think we're different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us. Walter Dean Myers differentendsthinking Wherever your heart rests There I will live and be blessed I've tried to line up the things I Needed to say but now my feelings just Tumble from me. I am half foolish, Half drunk with wanting you With wanting to take your hand And leap into the darkness of whatever Life will bring. Love makes me Brave and without love I'm made Nothing. Walter Dean Myers blessedhearthands Drew, your enemies can mess your life up,' he said. 'Or they can make it easy for you to do it to yourself.' —Fletch Walter Dean Myers easysaidenemy Forever in your arms Is where I want to be Holding you close Within the space That once held only me... Forever in your warmth The place for me and you I feel the sun Our life's just begun I know you feel it too Walter Dean Myers spacewantforever I know I'm tired of thinking about what I should have done yesterday. I know I'm just tired. If I knew what to do with my life, how to fix it up, I would have done it a long time ago. You can't dig that? You think I want to live like I'm somebody's throwaway? Walter Dean Myers tiredshould-havethinking I'm not out here looking for no garbage cans to curl up in. I'm looking for the same good dreams everybody else is hoping for, but I don't see where they are. Or maybe I see where they are, but I don't see how to get there. Walter Dean Myers garbage-canscurlsdream
