What sort of person you grow into should not be achieved by default, and often that's exactly what happens to kids. I see literature as a method of guidance, information, and contemplation, and consider it the greatest compliment possible when a reader tells me that a book of mine really made him/her think. Wendelin Van Draanen
There are certain things I believe we need to keep in our emotional arsenal as we navigate through life. Hope is a big one. The more of that we can carry, the better. Wendelin Van Draanen
I rewrite my books many times before submitting them, and after my editor takes a look I wind up rewriting some more! It's a good thing I learned at an early age to keep on trying. Stick to it, and eventually you'll get there. Wendelin Van Draanen
If you are interested in writing, get out and live your life! Do a lot. See a lot. Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to the different ways people speak. Read lots of different kinds of books. And then try writing in different voices and styles - don't be afraid to experiment. Wendelin Van Draanen
I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave. Frederick Douglass
A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him. Frederick Douglass
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future. Frederick Douglass
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out. Frederick Douglass
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. Frederick Douglass
America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Frederick Douglass
I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety. Frederick Douglass