Lisa Graff Quotes

#1. It's the way we deal with what Fate hands us that defines who we are.

Lisa Graff

#2. Everyone deserves a sad day once in a while," Calista told me. "Sometimes things are too big for cheering up. Sometimes the best way to make things better is just to let yourself be sad for a little bit.

Lisa Graff

#3. You should do something because you love it, not just because you're good at it.

Lisa Graff

#4. I have always had a ridiculous fear that I will walk into the bathroom one morning and find a python in my toilet.

Lisa Graff

#5. Her favorite animal was sea lions. Mine was giraffes. Her favorite movie was Casablanca, which she said was old and black-and-white and very romantic. She tried to tell me what it was about, but it all sounded about as much fun as eating burned bread crusts.

Lisa Graff

#6. My love of baking might have originated with my grandmother. She had a lemon tree growing in her backyard, and one of my favorite memories is of picking lemons together and then baking lemon bars.

Lisa Graff

#7. I've been a children's book editor, a nanny, a camp counselor, a barista, a research lab assistant, and a movie theater ticket-taker.

Lisa Graff

#8. When you do choose to speak, she told me, speak truths.

Lisa Graff

#9. Kids are always told that they can be anything that they want. But what if you want to be a ballerina, and you're terrible at ballet? Or what if you're gifted at ballet, but you don't like doing it?

Lisa Graff

#10. Kids know when you're pulling a fast one, storywise, and I think that even when they're being entertained, children want to hear the truth, just like adults do.

Lisa Graff

#11. I was the typical little sister who wanted to be just like her older brother. When I was growing up, my brother wrote phenomenal stories, so I wanted to write them, too.

Lisa Graff

#12. Some people aren't good at anything. Some people just really like donuts.

Lisa Graff

#13. When I was in fourth grade, I had a lot of upheaval in my life. Both of my parents remarried, and we all got new houses. That was also the year my older brother got very sick.

Lisa Graff

#14. Being a writer can be a very lonely profession, but having a network of people who can sympathize with everything you're going through - from contract issues to the terror of changing your novel from past- to present-tense - is an invaluable asset.

Lisa Graff

#15. One of the things I like to do during an 'overhaul' revision is bust out my highlighters and colored pens. Tools like these make me feel like a real writer.

Lisa Graff

#16. There was a hint of something lingering in her mind. A memory, perhaps, although Jo could only catch the flavor of a few remaining tendrils.

Lisa Graff

#17. I desperately want to visit the Galapagos and meet some giant tortoises.

Lisa Graff

#18. Sometimes memories hit like a wallop, all of a sudden, and hard. Other times, for no reason that anyone can explain, memories take much longer to sink in. They seem to meander a bit before choosing which mind to settle into.

Lisa Graff

#19. Life is the grandest adventure one can go on, isn't it?' said the giant kindly (he seemed to be a very friendly giant). 'What else could a person ask for than just to be alive?'

Will knew exactly what else a person could ask for. 'Monsters,' he said. 'And cake.

Lisa Graff

#20. You can't get where you're going without being where you've been.

Lisa Graff

#21. Find something you'd want to keep doing forever," she said, "even if you stink at it. And then if you're lucky, with lots of practice, then one day you won't stink so much.

Lisa Graff

#22. And when thoughts wiggle their way in, sometimes it can be very difficult for them to wiggle out again.

Lisa Graff

#23. And you couldn't be anywhere at all without having been almost there for a while.

Lisa Graff

#24. The Longstockings are eight children's and young adult writers. We all came out of the New School MFA program, and we meet regularly to critique each other's work.

Lisa Graff

#25. I'd like to have a perfect sense of direction. I could get lost with a GPS strapped to my arm.

Lisa Graff