Jerry Spinelli Quotes - Page 4

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You liked me." I smiled. "You were smitten with me. You were speechless to behold my beauty. You had never met anyone so fascinating. You thought of me every waking minute. You dreamed about me. You couldn't stand it. You couldn't let such wonderfulness out of your sight. You had to follow me." I turned to Cinnamon. He licked my nose. "Don't give yourself so much credit. It was your rat I was after." She laughed, and the desert sang.

Jerry Spinelli

Sight, Giving, Desert

Jerry Spinelli (2001). “Stargirl”, p.86, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Today the mockingbird does not sound very happy. It sounds if it is coming apart. As of the very heart of itself-its song-is breaking into pieces and flying off in a hundred directions.

Jerry Spinelli

Song, Heart, Flying

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.191, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Who are you if you lose your favorite person? Can you lose your favorite person without losing yourself? I reach for Stargirl and she's gone. I'm not me anymore.

Jerry Spinelli

Gone, Losing, Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.142, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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He was the Grand Marshall of our Everyday Parade

Jerry Spinelli

Everyday, Parades

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You occupied my space. But because you were not in my present, when I looked into my future I saw . . . nothing. Isn't that sad? And stupid?

Jerry Spinelli

Stupid, Space, Saws

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.144, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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If you start by hating one or two people, you won't be able to stop. Pretty soon you'll hate a hundred people." "A zillion?" "Even a zillion. A little hatred goes a long, long way. It grows and grows. And it's hungry." "Like Cimmamum?" "Even hungrier. You keep feeding it more and more people, and the more it gets, the more it wants. It's never satisfied. And pretty soon it squeezes all the love out of your heart"--I pointed to her heart; she looked down at her chest--"and all you'll have left is a hateful heart.

Jerry Spinelli

Hate, Heart, Two

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I’m not my name. My name is something I wear, like a shirt. It gets worn. I outgrow it, I change it.

Jerry Spinelli

Names, Stargirl, Shirts

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.45, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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If I get a new idea today—or any day—I won't run from it. I won't trash it. If it's something I really want to do—I'll do it.

Jerry Spinelli

Running, Ideas, Want

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No one on earth is so boring and insignificant that he or she is not worth writing or reading about...One thing's for sure—no one but you can be the hero of your story.

Jerry Spinelli

Reading, Hero, Writing

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Did I ever tell you my pet peeve?' No,' I said. People who dress up their pets to look like Little Lord Fauntleroys or cowboys, clowns, ballerinas. As if it's not enough just to be a dog or cat or turtle.

Jerry Spinelli

Dog, Cat, Cowboy

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.256, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Love is big. Love makes room for conflicting feelings.

Jerry Spinelli

Love Is, Feelings, Rooms

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Great achievement goes through, not around, discouragement. Is there a roadblock in my way, keeping me from something I want to achieve? Am I discouraged? I understand now that discouragement often precedes achievement. Instead of retreating from the roadblock or seeking a way around it, I will boldly punch a hole through it and continue toward my goal.

Jerry Spinelli

Goal, Achievement, Want

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This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings become events. Head and heart are contrary historians.

Jerry Spinelli

Heart, Feelings, Trying

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Live today like there's no tomorrow!

Jerry Spinelli

Live For Today, Today, Tomorrow

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I think of the flower in the bud: huddled, compressed, dark. Yet somehow it feels the night, knows moon from sun. It waits...waits.

Jerry Spinelli

Flower, Dark, Moon

Jerry Spinelli (2007). “Love, Stargirl”, p.74, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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In that moonlit hour, I acquired a sense of the otherness of things. I liked the feeling the moonlight gave me, as if it wasn't the opposite of day, but its underside, its private side, when the fabulous purred on my snow-white sheet like some dark cat come in from the desert.

Jerry Spinelli

Cat, Dark, Opposites

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.15, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Every child's bedroom is as important as a telescope orbiting the planet earth or a philosopher's study.

Jerry Spinelli

Children, Important, Earth

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And so I'm me again, Leo. Thanks to the example of a five-year-old. I'm hoping you wouldn't want it any other way. Not that you weren't flattered, right? I mean, to have a girl two thousand miles away going to pieces over you, weeping at the mere memory of you, losing her appetite, losing herself and self-respect - well, that's trophy enough for any guy's ego, huh?

Jerry Spinelli

Girl, Memories, Mean

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When you own nothing, it's easy to let things go.

Jerry Spinelli

Easy, Milkweed, Letting Things Go

Jerry Spinelli (2003). “Milkweed”, p.104, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Ironic," Betty Lou said at last. "The cereus insists on sunlight---that's why it must be at the end of the yard. And yet it saves its flowers for the moon. The sun never sees what it fathers." It takes from the day," I said, "gives to the night.

Jerry Spinelli

Father, Flower, Moon

Jerry Spinelli (2007). “Love, Stargirl”, p.72, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Of course, all of their words for a thousand years could not fill the hole left by his mother, but they could raise a loving fence around it so he didn't keep falling in.

Jerry Spinelli

Mother, Fall, Years

Jerry Spinelli (2008). “Eggs”

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Stargirl began to improvise. She flung her arms to a make-believe crowd like a celebrity on parade. She waggled her fingers at the stars. She churned her fists like an egg-beater. Every action echoed down the line behind her. The three hops of the bunny became three struts of a vaudeville vamp. Then a penguin waddle. Then tippy-toed priss. Every new move brought new laughter from the line.

Jerry Spinelli

Stars, Laughter, Believe

Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.107, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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I’ll still be missing you as much as ever. I’l still smile at the memory of you. I’ll still be - Okay, I’ll say it again - loving you, but I won’t abandon myseld for you. I cannot be faithful to you without being faithful to myself.

Jerry Spinelli

Memories, Loving You, Missing

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Now I don't really write for adults or kids - I don't write for kids, I write about them. I think you need to do that, otherwise you end up preaching down.

Jerry Spinelli

Kids, Writing, Thinking

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Kids still can be said to live in their own little world. Even if their parents are helicoptering around them, assigning play dates and so forth, I think they're still living in some sense of their own little perceptual worlds.

Jerry Spinelli

Kids, Thinking, Play

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Born: February 1, 1941
Occupation: Writer
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