Julius Lester Quotes

• A good teacher is one who helps you become who you feel yourself to be. A good teacher is also one who says something that you won't understand until 10 years later.

  Julius Lester

  Teacher, Years, Helping

  69 Copy quote

• Each of us is comprised of stories, stories not only about ourselves but stories about ancestors we never knew and people we've never met. We have stories we love to tell and stories we have never told anyone. The extent to which others know us is determined by the stories we choose to share. We extend a deep trust to someone when we say, "I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone." Sharing stories creates trust because through stories we come to a recognition of how much we have in common.

  Julius Lester

  Writing, People, Stories

  26 Copy quote

• I write because the lives of all of us are stories. If enough of those stories are told, then perhaps we will begin to see that our lives are the same story. The differences are merely in the details.

  Julius Lester

  Writing, Differences, Details

  18 Copy quote

• Dying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.

  Julius Lester

  Important, Dying, Doe

  14 Copy quote

• Being a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.

  Julius Lester

  Live Life, Should, Live Your Own Life

  Julius Lester (2008). “Guardian”, Amistad

  13 Copy quote

• But there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.

  Julius Lester

  Pain, Wind, Evil

  Julius Lester (2009). “Guardian”, p.2, Harper Collins

  14 Copy quote

• The failure of modern living is the failure of the imagination...Literature is the royal road that enables us to enter the realm of the imagination.

  Julius Lester

  Imagination, Literature, Royal

  11 Copy quote

• How can I love you if I don't know what hurts you?

  Julius Lester

  Hurt, Love You, Knows

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.73, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• Faith is not something that one has; faith is something that one practices at the very moment in your life when you really don't believe anything, and you're in the worst kind of despair.

  Julius Lester

  Believe, Practice, Despair

  4 Copy quote

• It ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.

  Julius Lester

  Love, Heart, Mean

  6 Copy quote

• Silence was not the absence of sound but was itself a sound that could be loud or soft, soothing or disturbing, complex or simple.

  Julius Lester

  Simple, Silence, Sound

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.73, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• ...part of the mind's job was to cast doubt on what the heart knew to be true, and the heart, because it had no words, often lost the argument

  Julius Lester

  Jobs, Heart, Doubt

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.174, St. Martin's Press

  6 Copy quote

• We remember with our emotions. The things that were important in our emotional life, that's what we remember.

  Julius Lester

  Emotional, Important, Remember

  Julius Lester (2003). “When Dad Killed Mom”, p.130, HMH

  8 Copy quote

• Just because she's dead it doesn't mean I stopped loving her or that she stopped loving me. It's just her body that left. The love didn't. —Jenna Richards

  Julius Lester

  Mean, Body, Loving Me

  4 Copy quote

• To write and not tell the truth? That would be death for any writer. But more, it would be death to the imagination. And if the imagination dies, what would happen to the souls of children?

  Julius Lester

  Children, Writing, Imagination

  10 Copy quote

• Books, and especially fiction, do not proceed from ideas. They are born from feelings

  Julius Lester

  Book, Ideas, Feelings

  Julius Lester (2003). “When Dad Killed Mom”, p.207, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• Freeform radio is an art form. The airwaves are the empty canvas, the producer is the artist, and the sound is the paint.

  Julius Lester

  Art, Sound, Radio

  8 Copy quote

• If I canot know your name, may I light a lamp so I can see your face?' If you sould ever see my face, you will lose me forever.' Why?' Psyche wanted to know. 'Are you ugly? Are you afraid I won't love you if I see your face?' Perhaps I am afraid that if you see my face, it will be THAT that you will love and not me.' I understand, believe me. I know what that feels like.

  Julius Lester

  Believe, Love You, Light

  5 Copy quote

• Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.

  Julius Lester

  Evil, Goodness, Verge

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.219, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• ... the object of learning was not to build a better mousetrap but to ask a better question.

  Julius Lester

  Objects, Asks

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.31, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• I'm tired of thinking and I'm really tired of Feeling. —Jenna Richards

  Julius Lester

  Tired, Thinking, Feelings

  4 Copy quote

• Often, the human animal dresses terror in rage, and expresses both in a way unlike either.

  Julius Lester

  Fear, Animal, Dresses

  Julius Lester (2005). “The Autobiography of God: A Novel”, p.27, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• But I want you around even when I don't need you. —Jeremy Richards

  Julius Lester

  I Don't Need You, Needs, Want

  4 Copy quote

• Some wounds go so deep that you don't even feel them until months, maybe years, later.

  Julius Lester

  Years, Months, Feels

  Julius Lester (2003). “When Dad Killed Mom”, p.147, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• When I read students’ attempts at creative writing it is obvious immediately that most of them have not read much or widely. The aspiring writer must read everything he or she can to appreciate the myriad ways words are used and to what effect.

  Julius Lester

  Writing, Appreciate, Creative

  4 Copy quote

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