When my family fell apart, it was such a troubled part of my life… I think I could understand what I was going through, but I didn’t have the vocabulary for it. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
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 Read Quote
There was a time I was no longer going to be black. I was going to be an ‘intellectual.’ When I was first looking around for colleges, thinking of colleges I couldn’t afford to go to, I was thinking of being a philosopher. I began to understand then that much of my feelings about race were negative. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
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 Read Quote
And I see the – you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can’t read now. And I know that when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they’re not going to be able to make it in our society. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
My dad was a janitor for U.S. Radium Corporation, and he stayed there for 37 years. So he didn’t read. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
I was raised in Harlem. I never found a book that took place in Harlem. I never had a church like mine in a book. I never had people like the people I knew. People who could not find their lives in books and celebrated felt bad about themselves. I needed to write to include the lives of these young people. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
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 Read Quote
What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke the color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. It was clear that all of the major league owners already knew the talents of the black ballplayers that they had refused to let into their league. Walter Dean Myers Read Quote
