Ellen Potter Quotes & Sayings

One professor in college told me flat out I wasn't good enough to enter the creative writing program. I saved that letter and promised myself I would send it back to her when my first book came out. — Ellen Potter

Jeremy used to hate it when she was younger because someone in her class told her redheads were freaks of nature.But our mother told her that redheads were genetically more courageous than other people and that she should always where her hair long,like a wariors badge of honor. — Ellen Potter

I write about two hours a day, and I write in fits and spurts - 45 minutes here, a half-hour there - and when I get stuck, which happens often, I take the dogs for a walk. But during the time when I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking. — Ellen Potter

Then she probably would have waved back," Max said. "And it might be a he."
"Ha! Not likely," Lucia said. "Didn't you notice them?"
"Them what?" Max asked.
"Her... you know. She has breasts, Max! What do you think that is on her chest?"
"I think it's a pair of crossed arms," Max said. — Ellen Potter

People should have all their big adventures while they're still under the age of fourteen. If you don't, you start to lose your passion for big adventures. It just begins to fade away bit by bit and then you forget you ever wanted adventures in the first place. — Ellen Potter

A lot of times, when I go back to books I loved when I was young, I don't quite understand what it was that I loved about them. Rereading 'The Secret Garden,' I felt a lot like Mary feels when she visits her garden. — Ellen Potter

I've reread 'The Secret Garden' every year as an adult. I have a battered copy on my bookshelf - it's really quite a mess! The experience of reading the novel keeps deepening for me. — Ellen Potter

All great adventures have moments that are really crap. — Ellen Potter

I don't plot my novels - I move along with my characters. — Ellen Potter

I pretty much always knew I wanted to be a writer. I was writing goofy stories when I was 7 or 8. That was what I call 'wishful-thinking writing.' I grew up in the city and always wanted a horse, but there was no way I was getting a horse. So I wrote all these stories about kids who had horses. It's still fun entering these other worlds. — Ellen Potter

Mind your fingers though. She bites. — Ellen Potter

It was the right and responsible thing to do, so they put it off until later. — Ellen Potter

I resisted children's writing for a long time. I saw myself as a writer of literary fiction. But I had so much more fun writing kids' books. — Ellen Potter

Memory, in my opinion, is a complete noodle. It hangs on the silliest things but forgets the stuff that really matters. — Ellen Potter

Books are such quiet things - created in silence, read in silence - yet publishing a book has become a very noisy business. I've been noisy, too. I felt like I had to be in order to connect with my readers. — Ellen Potter

Look, when do the really interesting things happen? Not when you've brushed your teeth and put on your pyjamas and are cozy in bed. They happen when you are cold and uncomfortable and hungry and don't have a roof over your head for the night. — Ellen Potter

Careful, she bites. — Ellen Potter

Rubbish," Max said. "Anyone can put on clumpy boots and pierce themselves silly. A truly dangerous person would be someone you'd never even look at twice. — Ellen Potter

It's alarming how quickly people adjust to adventures when they are in one. You really have to work at being astonished by life. — Ellen Potter

...when you start to feel like you are better than someone else, you should probably stick your head in a toilet because at that moment your thoughts are crap. — Ellen Potter

Give that man a Pixy Stix," Haddie said. "A what?" Lucia asked. "Hold on." She left then returned a moment later with a handful of colorful straws, one of which she threw at Max like a dart. He caught it in midair. That impressed Haddie and she tossed him another, just to see if he could do it again. He fumbled that one. — Ellen Potter

Hocus Pocus let's try to focus — Ellen Potter

Then Lucia said, "So what do we do now?"

"Nothing," Otto said. "Things will go on as just they always have. — Ellen Potter

I had a blog where I tried to be transparent while giving away nothing. I tweeted and Facebooked badly. As a writer, your 'voice' is your calling card, yet my voice was becoming indistinguishable from billions of other voices. — Ellen Potter