Top 80 Walter Dean Myers Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I was teased if I brought my books home. I would take a paper bag to the library and put the books in the bag and bring them home. Not that I was that concerned about them teasing me – because I would hit them in a heartbeat. But I felt a little ashamed, having books.”

— Walter Dean Myers

52. “If what I read doesn’t reflect my life – whether I’m gay or Latino or on welfare – doesn’t that really mean that my life is not valuable?”

— Walter Dean Myers

53. “You cannot live this life anymore without the ability to read.”

— Walter Dean Myers

54. “Within the black community, roughly 60 percent of children are born to single moms. Moms don’t have the emotional wherewithal to deal with their children. Their English is atrocious. Their speaking is atrocious. The dropout rate is horrendous.”

— Walter Dean Myers

55. “As a kid I didn’t see black cowboys on the screen. What that said to me was that there were things I couldn’t do or be because of my color. What we see others like us do gives us permission to expand our own horizons.”

— Walter Dean Myers

56. “That’s what’s wrong with women. They want you to wait for them until they get ready and then they don’t even tell you how they feel.”

— Walter Dean Myers

57. “Children have adopted a consumerist attitude – I dare you to entertain me.”

— Walter Dean Myers

58. “When you see a filmmaker getting too fancy... you can bet he’s worried either about his story or his ability to tell it.”

— Walter Dean Myers

59. “I talk to myself out loud at times, and feel embarrassed when people overhear me.”

— Walter Dean Myers

60. “We need to tell young people that America was built by men and women of all colors and that the future of this country is dependent on the participation of all of our citizens.”

— Walter Dean Myers

61. “I know what falling off the cliff means. I know from being considered a very bright kid to being considered like a moron and dropping out of school.”

— Walter Dean Myers

62. “I couldn’t speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that sense.”

— Walter Dean Myers

63. “America believes what’s good for us is good for the world. It’s very difficult to understand that that’s not necessarily true.”

— Walter Dean Myers

64. “There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities.”

— Walter Dean Myers

65. “I’ll never live to write all the stories I have in my head.”

— Walter Dean Myers

66. “I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I’ll be happy.”

— Walter Dean Myers

67. “Fools commit suicide and think they’re doing themselves a favor.”

— Walter Dean Myers

68. “As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart – often for years – until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.”

— Walter Dean Myers

69. “The lure of seeing new places, different ways of life, has been almost irresistible.”

— Walter Dean Myers

70. “When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat.”

— Walter Dean Myers

71. “As a child I wanted to be a professional athlete or lawyer.”

— Walter Dean Myers

72. “I write in a small office at home.”

— Walter Dean Myers

73. “Fifty percent of all meaningful education takes place in the home. What do you share with your child? You share your interests. I was a book person. I read with my son. My wife is an artist. She dragged his little butt around to museums. He’s an illustrator of children’s books.”

— Walter Dean Myers

74. “We dreamed a lot of good stuff. Marriage and forever and ever and that kind of thing. It meant everything to me. Not just a lot. Everything.”

— Walter Dean Myers

75. “I admired the work ethic of the cowboys I read about. The idea of these young people taking on this much responsibility was impressive. I would like modern readers to have an appreciation of this.”

— Walter Dean Myers

76. “I’m not out here looking for no garbage cans to curl up in. I’m looking for the same good dreams everybody else is hoping for, but I don’t see where they are. Or maybe I see where they are, but I don’t see how to get there.”

— Walter Dean Myers

77. “I want young people to be hesitant to glorify war and to demand of their leaders justification for the sacrifices they ask of our citizens.”

— Walter Dean Myers

78. “We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it’s this wonderful adjunct.”

— Walter Dean Myers

79. “I wrote for magazines. I wrote adventure stuff, I wrote for the ‘National Enquirer,’ I wrote advertising copy for cemeteries.”

— Walter Dean Myers

80. “All of fiction is truthful. What you create is your own truth and no one can take that away or change it.”

— Walter Dean Myers

81. “Tests were always easy for me. I saw them as games, saw myself as being in a contest against a mythical adversary, and welcomed the challenge.”

— Walter Dean Myers

82. “I like people who take responsibility for their lives.”

— Walter Dean Myers

83. “Maybe being loved wasn’t enough; maybe there was something else you needed not to get in trouble.”

— Walter Dean Myers

84. “Many teens will see themselves in Myers’ account”.”

— Walter Dean Myers

85. “They’re strangers but they still find reasons to hurt each other.”

— Walter Dean Myers

86. “They didn’t allow kids in the visiting area, which was funny. It was funny because if I wasn’t locked up, I wouldn’t be allowed to come into the visiting room.”

— Walter Dean Myers

87. “That’s what makes poor people poor... They’re looking to find treasures instead of working and saving every day.”

— Walter Dean Myers

88. “What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn’t kill Mr. Nesbitt.”

— Walter Dean Myers