Gary D. Schmidt Quotes - Page 2

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Brothers Eyes Giving Lying

I handed the test in five minutes before the end of the day. Mrs. Baker took it calmly, then reached into her bottom drawer for an enormous red pen with a wide felt tip. "Stand here and we'll see how you've done," she said, which is sort of like a dentist handing you a mirror and saying, "Sit here and watch while I drill a hole in your tooth.

Gary D. Schmidt

Mirrors, The End Of The Day, Bakers

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.60, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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There is no Art made without power, and there is no reason for Art to be made except for power.

Gary D. Schmidt

Art, Power, Reason

Gary D. Schmidt (2012). “What Came from the Stars”, p.182, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Why can't poets just say what they want to say and then shut up?

Gary D. Schmidt

Want, Shut Up, Poet

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Whatever it means to be a friend, taking a black eye for someone has to be in it.

Gary D. Schmidt

Mean, Eye, Black

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.103, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Sometimes--and I know it doesn't last for anything more than a second--sometimes there can be perfect understanding between two people who can't stand each other. He smiled, and I smiled, and we put the Timex watches on, and we watched the seconds flit by.

Gary D. Schmidt

Two, People, Perfect

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.156, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Books can ignite fires in your mind, because they carry ideas for kindling, and art for matches.

Gary D. Schmidt

Art, Book, Fire

Gary D. Schmidt (2004). “Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy”, p.129, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Maybe this happens to you every day, but I think it was the first time I could hardly wait to show something that I'd done to someone who would care besides my mother. You know how that feels?

Gary D. Schmidt

Mother, Thinking, Waiting

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.77, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I saw my town as if I had just arrived. It was as if I was waking up. You see houses and buildings every day, and you walk by them on your way to something else, and you hardly see. You hardly notice they're even there, mostly because there's something else going on right in front of your face, But when the town itself becomes the thing that is going on right in front of your face, it all changes, and you're not just looking at a house, but at what's happened in that house before you were born.

Gary D. Schmidt

House, Wake Up, Way

Gary D. Schmidt (2007). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.223, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I think he became a man who brought peace and wisdom to hi world, because he knew about war and folly. I think that he loved greatly, because he had seen what lost love is. And I think he came to know, too, that he was loved greatly." She looked at the strawberry in her hands. "But I thought you didn't want me to tell you your future.

Gary D. Schmidt

War, Lost Love, Love Is

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Think of the sound you make when you let go after holding your breath for a very, very long time. Think of the gladdest sound you know: the sound of dawn on the first day of spring break, the sound of a bottle of Coke opening, the sound of a crowd cheering in your ears because you're coming down to the last part of a race--and you're ahead. Think of the sound of water over stones in a cold stream, and the sound of wind through green trees on a late May afternoon in Central Park. Think of the sound of a bus coming into the station carrying someone you love. Then put all those together.

Gary D. Schmidt

Letting Go, Cheer, Spring

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.235, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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When 1:45 came, half the class left, and Danny Hupfer whispered, "If she gives you a cream puff after we leave, I'm going to kill you" - which was not something that someone headed off to prepare for his bar mitzvah should be thinking. When 1:55 came and the other half of the class left, Meryl Lee whispered, "If she gives you one after we leave, I'm going to do Number 408 to you." I didn't remember what Number 408 was, but it was probably pretty close to what Danny Hupfer had promised. Even Mai Thi looked at me with narrowed eyes and said, "I know your home." Which sounded pretty ominous.

Gary D. Schmidt

Eye, Home, Thinking

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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You can't just skip the boring parts." "Of course I can skip the boring parts." "How do you know they're boring if you don't read them?" "I can tell." "Then you can't say you've read the whole play." "I think I can live a happy life, Meryl Lee, even if I don't read the boring parts of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." "Who knows?" she said. "Maybe you can't.

Gary D. Schmidt

Happy Life, Thinking, Play

Gary D. Schmidt (2007). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.215, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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There's no pleasure in getting to be an old coot unless you have some fun along the way.

Gary D. Schmidt

Fun, Way, Pleasure

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.164, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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It means, Doug Swieteck, that in this class, you are not your brother.

Gary D. Schmidt

Brother, Mean, Class

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.102, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Reader, I kissed her. A quiet walk we had, she and I.

Gary D. Schmidt

Quiet, Walks, Reader

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In the whole story of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.

Gary D. Schmidt

Special, Stories, World

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.249, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I think something must happen to you when you get into eight grade. Like the Doug Swieteck's Brother Gene switches on and you become a jerk.
Which may have been Hamlet, Prince of Denmark's problem, who, besides having a name that makes him sound like a breakfast special at Sunnyside Morning Restaurant--something between a ham slice and a three-egg omelet--didn't have the smarts to figure out that when someone takes the trouble to come back from beyond the grave to tell you that he's been murdered, it's probably behooveful to pay attention--which is the adjectival form.

Gary D. Schmidt

Morning, Brother, Smart

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Mrs. Daugherty was keeping my bowl of cream of wheat hot, and she had a special treat with it, she said. It was bananas. In the whole story of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.

Gary D. Schmidt

Special, Hot, Stories

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.249, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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In English, we were still on the Introduction to Poetry Unit, and I'm not lying, if I ever meet Percy Bysshe Shelley walking down the streets of Marysville, I'm going to punch him right in the face.

Gary D. Schmidt

Lying, Faces, Introduction

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.265, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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A comedy isn’t about being funny...a comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all.

Gary D. Schmidt

Character, May, Comedy

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So you just went in and told him to give you two Cokes and he gave them to you?" "No, I didn't just go in and tell him to give me two Cokes. I asked for a Coke for me and a Coke for the skinny thug sitting on the library steps.

Gary D. Schmidt

Thug, Two, Giving

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...and she ran out of the diesel combustion and right to me and we held each other and we were not empty at all. "Holling," she said. "I was so afraid I wouldn't fine you." "I was standing right here, Heather." I said. "I'll always be standing right here.

Gary D. Schmidt

Heathers, Empty, Said

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Do you ever wonder what it's like to be so angry that you...And then something happens, and after that, everyone figures that's what you're like, and that's what you're always going to be, and so you just decide to be it? But the whole time you're thinking, Am I going to be like him? Or am I already like him? And then you get angrier, because maybe you are, and you want... He stopped. He wiped at his eyes. I'm not lying. My brother wiped at his eyes.

Gary D. Schmidt

Brother, Lying, Eye

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You know, there are good reasons to learn how to read. Poetry isn't one of them. I mean, so what if two roads go two ways in a wood? So what? Who cares if it made all that big a difference? What difference? And why should I have to guess what the difference is? Isn't that what he's supposed to say? Why can't poets just say what they want to say and then shut up?

Gary D. Schmidt

Mean, Differences, Two

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A southwest blow on ye and blister you all o'er!' 'The red plague rid you!' 'Toads, beetles, bats, light on you!' 'As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather from unwholesome fen drop on you.' 'Strange stuff' 'Thou jesting monkey thou' 'Apes with foreheads villainous low' 'Pied ninny' 'Blind mole...' -The Caliban Curses

Gary D. Schmidt

Mother, Blow, Light

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Born: 1957
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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