Rebecca Stead Quotes

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Rebecca Stead

Profession : Writer

Birth : January 16, 1968

I would never look a gift horse in the mouth. I've had some lovely homemade earrings and, recently, a wall hanging made in the style of Georges Seurat.

Rebecca Stead

Every published writer suffers through that first draft because most of the time, that's a disappointment.

Rebecca Stead

From age nine, my friends and I were on the streets, walking home, going to each other's houses, going to the store. I really wanted to write about that: the independence that's a little bit scary but also a really positive thing in a lot of ways.

Rebecca Stead

The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that no one is stopping you. There's no one saying, 'You can't do that.'

Rebecca Stead

I never had a favourite book! I liked all kinds of things - science fiction, so I read Heinlen and Ray Bradbury, and I also liked reading about kids like myself, so I read Judy Blume and Norma Klein and Paula Danzinger and a lot of other writers. I also read James Herriot!

Rebecca Stead

I think things hit me very hard, and I wish I had allowed things to roll off my back a little bit more.

Rebecca Stead

I read a whole lot as a child, and, of course, I still read children's books.

Rebecca Stead

I personally find the ideas that girls need to cover their shoulders in school a little bit strange... when we're telling girls, you know, 'You have to cover your shoulders because otherwise you're a distraction to other people in your class,' probably something is wrong.

Rebecca Stead

I think we must all feel that there are people out there who know things about our young selves, you know, our early, early lives, that no one else can ever know.

Rebecca Stead

A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas.

Rebecca Stead

My kids really like food, and they like to cook, so it's a lot of fun to shop with them.

Rebecca Stead

On Sunday, I think the most important thing for me is to just turn my brain off. The idea of not trying is the key, because that's where you're relaxed enough to let your brain make new connections.

Rebecca Stead

I think of 'Liar & Spy' as completely different and actually not at all like a 'When You Reach Me'-type story. I feel like 'Liar & Spy' has a much quieter, more emotional revelation.

Rebecca Stead

There's this trouble with books for me because I'm terrible at thinking of titles. The truth is, even with the titles that I've landed on in the end, they always feel wrong. I think it's because of this whole problem of having to package your book in a certain way.

Rebecca Stead

I try to remember what it was like to be a kid in New York. I lived in different parts of my childhood in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, where 'When You Reach Me' is set, and also in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.

Rebecca Stead

I like the idea of a world, even within a big giant city, where you're not anonymous. You have an identity, and that's an identity that's known just sort of by shopkeepers. I felt that as a kid, and I loved it.

Rebecca Stead

Mostly what I try to do is build emotion. Only I'd prefer not to do it by telling you about emotion but by pushing that emotion down.

Rebecca Stead

I felt vulnerable and very much between friends. I remember walking down the hallway and thinking I had no way of knowing what was coming, literally. This wasn't because I had some horrific bullying story, but because of a steady drip of negativity.

Rebecca Stead

There was a boy in my building who was my best friend when I was growing up. There was also a mysterious person on my corner who we called the Laughing Man.

Rebecca Stead

'Middle school' is used as shorthand for a time when things change. It's a time a lot of kids feel like they don't even have one good friend.

Rebecca Stead