Avi Quotes

#1. I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thinking about readers.

Avi

#2. Something Zachariah told me filled my mind and excited my heart: "A Sailor," he said, "chooses the wind that takes the ship from safe port ... but winds have a mind of their home.

Avi

#3. Every night, I was read to. Every Friday, we were taken to the library. I always received at least one book for my birthday. I have a few of them yet. Early on, I had my own collection of books. I loved to read. Still do.

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#4. The cure for unhappiness ... It's this: What a person needs is always more than they say.

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#5. A lot of people think inspiration means magic. But really, inspiration means to put life into something.

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#6. A mouse has to do what a mouse has to do

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#7. For some 25 years, I worked as a librarian, first at the New York Public Library, then at Trenton State College in New Jersey. My life has always been with, around, and for books.

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#8. The important thing was that he was there, as much a part of the rock, the water, the beach, the house, as they had come to be part of him.

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#9. People are freer in America. But there are more tears.

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#10. I JUST FINISHED READING WOLF RIDER SUCH A GOOD BOOK...YOU HAVE TO TO READ IT!!!!

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#11. Pal, if you ever look up the word right in a dictionary, you'll find it's one of the oldest words in the English language. Even so, people have never stopped arguing about what it means. I suspect they always will.

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#12. I don't like the idea of a book being a test or being used for a test. The way - in my opinion - to make good readers is to let kids choose their own books and not test them.

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#13. Know her? Of course I know her. Everyone knows Poppy. She's famous.

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#14. BEAR WAS DEAD. That sweet and kindly man, the wisest I had ever known, the one I considered friend, teacher, and even father, was gone. Would

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#15. It all depends on you. If you want it to be different,it will be different. Don't look at the world with your eyes but with your heart.

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#16. For heaven's sake, don't write writing. Write reading!

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#17. To resist a challenge is to resist life itself -Mogwat Of all challenges the greatest is to be yourself. Truth is often painful to speak but soothing to live.

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#18. A green summer leaf
Embraced by the frozen ice
Keeps memories warm

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#19. My mind has become somewhat like a book. What I mean by that is that when I look at the world, I see it as a story.

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#20. A sailor chooses the wind that takes the ship from a safe port. Ah, yes, but once you're abroad, as you have seen, winds have a mind of their own. Be careful, Charlotte, careful of the wind you choose.

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#21. All I can think is that when you torment a person ... the soul dies. When the soul dies, I suppose mercy dies, too.

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#22. The more men see of the world, the bigger their hearts

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#23. Not for nothing are they called deadlines. By the time you reach the final line, sir, you are indeed dead.

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#24. The last time I looked," Avon pointed out, "the world isn't bigger than the universe, though I'm willing to admit I've never actually measured it.

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#25. Listen and watch the world around you. Don't be satisfied with answers others give you.

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#26. Would you believe it? Would you believe it. Okay, this is WLRB, all-talk radio. Take a short break, then come right back to talk about whatever you want. Man, but I'm telling you: what's happening to this country!

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#27. In my books I try to tell a good story, not give messages.

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#28. A sailor may choose the wind to ride out of seaport, but the wind has a mind of it's own.

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#29. Writing is my profession. Photography is my hobby.

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#30. When dark, it's bright, when brightest, it's gone. When gone for good, so will I be.
What am I?

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#31. It seems to me that you won't have had a proper series of adventures, unless you've gone through thick and thin.

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#32. Remember, lad," said the newt, "If it's going to be tommorow, it might as well be today. And if it is today, it could have been yesterday. If it was yesterday, then you're over and done with it, and can write your own book. Think about that.

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#33. There is a limit to how much a seer wishes to see.

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#34. Do you ever smile, boy?" he demanded. "If you can't laugh and smile, life is worthless. Do you hear me?" he yelled. "It's NOTHING!

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#35. Everybody has ideas. The vital question is, what do you do with them? My rock musician sons shape their ideas into music. My sister takes her ideas and fashions them into poems. My brother uses his ideas to help him understand science. I take my ideas and turn them into stories.

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#36. To love a man, you must know his sins.'"
"At the Edge of the World.

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#37. I won't let anyone tell me what to think.

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#38. There are those who'd rob a blind man of his eyelashes if they could.

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#39. Writing takes a lot of patience. It usually takes me a year to write a book. One time, it took me 14 years to write a book, not that I worked on it every day.

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#40. It makes it harder to write if I watch a lot of television, because television is not like a written story.

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#41. Let's agree then ... if you're about to come to a conclusion, you'll head off in another direction. You might even find your own voice.

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#42. I took a deep breath. 'For you I've got something better than love.'
What's that?'
I ... trust you.'
Why?'
You'll never hurt me.'
Thank you.'
But ... '
But, what?'
I said, 'That means I'll hurt you.'
Why?'
'Cause, like I said, you'll never hurt me back.

Avi

#43. The greater a man's - or boy's - ignorance of the world, the more certain he is that he sits in the center of that world.

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#44. With great care the two creatures edged to the very tip. From there they looked out at the cloudless sky.
"The end of the branch," said Avon, mostly to himself.
"The beginning of the sky," said Edward, mostly to HIMself.

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#45. To become a novelist, the most crucial thing one must do is read, read and read again - gradually you begin to think like a writer. Ideas are not found - they are shaped.

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#46. When a young man talks to an old man, it is always a gift.

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#47. An enormous fish poked his head out of the water and stared at them. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"Avon Snail, at your service," said Avon.
"Edward Ant," said Edward. "But I am not at your service.

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#48. The truth is I don't watch TV at all. It bores me.

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#49. It's said truth is stranger than fiction, but fiction makes truth a friend, not a stranger.

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#50. I was famous for not being like everybody else. I loved it.

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#51. You can't have adventures without poetry.

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#52. I was born in New York City, along with a twin sister. I am five minutes older than Emily. It was Emily, for reasons no one knows - she certainly doesn't - who called me Avi. It stuck. It's the only name I use now.

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#53. She can be fierce, but for all of that she's actually kindness itself.

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#54. The cure for unhappiness is this; people always need more than they say.

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#55. I kept asking myself if I felt different, if I was different. The answer was always yes. I was no longer nothing ...
How odd, I thought; it had taken my mother's death, Father Quinel's murder, and the desire of others to kill me to claim a life of my own.

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#56. The boys, hearing this declaration, allowed not the slightest hint that they had ever heard anything like it before.

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#57. Understanding that, I know I have not seen a ghost. I am not mad. It is something more extraordinary than that. I have made a mistake!

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#58. Nothing is quieter or has more secrets, I thought, than a book that's closed.

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#59. When bright, it's dark, when darkest, it's gone. When gone for good, so are you.
What am I?

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#60. Pal, if you don't take some wrong turns, you aren't going anywhere.

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#61. I want my readers to feel, to think, sometimes to laugh. But most of all I want them to enjoy a good read.

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#62. It's wonderful how much you can learn by just being quiet and listening. Sometimes you even learn the truth - or what seems to be the truth.

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#63. He was alive and wished that he was dead, but not being dead, he was scared that he might die.

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#64. Don't assume that because everyone believes a thing, that it is right or wrong. Reason things out for yourself. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why you believe things.

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#65. Magic," her mother said, "is a kind of hope. And wishes are like dreams. When we have them, we can make things change. Without, we stay the same.

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#66. Love is 'evil' spelled backward
with an i instead of an o.

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#67. In elementary school, I did well in science, but I was a poor writer. When I got to high school, I failed all my courses.

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#68. Writers don't write writing, they write reading. When I was a kid, I read four or five books a week. And that is how I became a writer.

Avi