James Howe Quotes & Sayings

Crying can help, too. People are often afraid to cry because they are told that crying is for babies. Crying does not make you a baby, no matter what anyone says. There are times when people feel so bad that they can't express their feelings in words. At those times, crying helps. — James Howe

Life is short and there will always be dirty dishes, so let's dance. — James Howe

I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn't play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, "No, but he and Ken got married last week." Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check. — James Howe

I can no more separate my serious concerns about the world from my cockeyed way of seeing it than I can keep apart my personal and professional selves. — James Howe

There's no such thing as a wasted wish. — James Howe

You don't have to have a boyfriend
or a girlfriend to know love.
Just open up your heart and
let the world in. Your heart
is bigger than you can imagine,
and so is the world, and so,
granddaughter, are you.
- Addie's grandmother — James Howe

Joe: Oo, Brittany "Aren't I Fabulous?" Hobson?
Addie: She's not that bad.
Joe: Brittany "All the Boys Like Me, I'm so Popular I Could Die" Hobson.
Addie: Joe! — James Howe

This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it - your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all. — James Howe

My family was always playing with words. It is little wonder that even after I got serious about writing, I've had a hard time getting serious about words. — James Howe

And that's an even greater love: to love somebody when he's a little ... worn at the edges.
- Teddy Bear — James Howe

[Button] If Gay and Lesbian people are given civil rights, soon everyone will want them — James Howe

I am about to stop being a get-along kind of guy and turn into somebody who makes a difference. — James Howe

Why, if I were to believe what everyone says about me, I would think myself quite, quite ugly. But I don't believe everyone, you see ... I believe you because you are my friend. You think I'm beautiful, and so I am.
- The Old One — James Howe

Dear Skeezie, Today I ran after a boy as he was trying to get away. I tackled him and we both landed in the mud. Do you think I appeared desperate?-Joe Bunch — James Howe

What must it be like
to move through your days always
in step with a friend? — James Howe

Harold (about max): he looks kinda like a football couch
Chester (sarcastically): Yay team rah rah. if he says anything athletic i'll scream
max: want to jog?
(chester screams).
— James Howe

They're really into it, laughing and teasing each other, and I am looking at Pam and thinking once again how she is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and that if we were back in the olden times she might have been made into a goddess because she is so beautiful. Sometimes I cannot stop my mind. It's scary. — James Howe

When you're living through it, though, especially when you are twelve and you think the whole world is changing until you realize it isn't the world, it's you, no piece seems little. It's all so big you think it can kill you. But it doesn't. Which is why the story goes on. — James Howe

The future is a trickster rabbit, full of surprises. Only the past is predictable. — James Howe

I was lucky in getting my first book published; my first book was 'Bunnicula,' which I wrote with my late wife Debbie, for the fun of it. — James Howe

I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. - Joe Bunch — James Howe

Sometimes I think it's easier to stand up to the whole school
or the whole world even
than it is to stand up to one person, especially if that person really matters to you. — James Howe

Another thing I think about names is that they DO hurt. They hurt because we believe them. We think they are telling us something true about ourselves, something other people can see even if we don't. - Bobby Goodspeed — James Howe

When I'm with other people who inspire my silliness or sense of humor, I'm funny. When I sit down to write, it's hard not to be funny. — James Howe

I like to read fiction, and I particularly enjoy reading young adult fiction. But I also read children's books, adult books, current authors, and classics, but I like fiction the most. — James Howe

So does being cool mean you get to go around calling other people names? — James Howe

The way I look at it, love does not necessarily make for a happy ending any more than winning does. What makes for a happy ending is what Addie said all along: freedom. The freedom to be who you are without anybody calling you names. - Bobby Goodspeed — James Howe

A day can start out ordinary and end up being in the top ten. - Joe Bunch — James Howe

(Quoting Goethe
We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others. — James Howe

Writing it down

is the way I make it real,
the way I find my way
into what it is I feel.

The words on paper or
computer screen
tell me more than
what I knew before
I wrote them,

help me remember
what I'm afraid
I'll forget,

let me keep
what I don't want
to lose,

say to me:
You
were
here. — James Howe

Who do you see
when you think of you?
Are you an outsider,
Cool, distant, angry,
swimming against the current,
or are you in the flow?
When they tell you,
This is who you are,
do you say yes or no?
Who do you see
when you look beyond
the skin and the surface,
when you drift to sleep,
when you are the person
no one else knows? Who
are you on the inside?
Don't answer these questions.
Not yet. First, open your eyes,
your mind, your heart.
See. — James Howe

Who do you see
when you look at them?
You know the ones I mean:

the others, the olders,
the youngers, the ones
who are not you, not

like you or your friends,
who wear the labels
you give them until

they give them back,
saying, I believe these
belong to you. — James Howe

Words played an important part in my growing up. Not only the written word ... but words that flew through the air: jokes, riddles, puns. — James Howe

The point is that something I thought was perfect has been broken, and I'm having to find the beauty in what is there instead of what I thought was there. Like this shell. I can either spend all my time wishing it were perfect, trying to imagine it the way it was or might have been, or I can see how beautiful it is just like this. — James Howe

You can spit until you're dry, but you'll never make a lake — James Howe

Impossible," he said "I am in love with my food source. — James Howe

Maybe this is what it's like for all only children: To love the family that isn't almost as much as the one that is. — James Howe

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break our spirit. — James Howe

Humor is the most precious gift I can give to my reader, a reminder that the world is not such a terribly serious place. There is more than video games and drugs and nuclear threats; there is laughter, and there is hope. — James Howe

Banning books is just another form of bullying. It's all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power. — James Howe

We all start out thinking that there is such a thing as perfection and that there's something wrong with us if we settle for less. First we won't eat the food with the brown spots. Then we hate ourselves because we have our own brown spots - pimples or ears that are too big or legs that are too skinny. — James Howe

Sometimes I wish I were a character in a book and there was a writer out there giving me things to say. — James Howe

Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble. — James Howe

Kids who get called the worst names oftentimes find each other. That's how it was with us. Skeezie, Tookis and Addie Carle and Joe Bunch and me. We call ourselves the Gang of Five, but there are only four of us. We do it to keep people on their toes. Make 'em wonder. Or maybe we do it because we figure that there's one more kid out there who's going to need a gang to be part of. A misfit,like us. — James Howe

I became an author because I love words. I enjoyed playing with them when I was a kid, writing stories and plays, and doing whatever I could think to do with words. I kept my love of them growing up and still love to see what they can do. — James Howe

But looking back on the next day, I can tell you that happy endings are possible, even in situations as fraught with complications as this one was. — James Howe

So, this is a rabbit, I thought. He sort of looks like Chester, only he's got longer ears and a shorter tail. And a motor in his nose. — James Howe

Anyway, I do not want you thinking that I or Addie or Joe or Skeezie feel sorry for ourselves. We do not. Other people may call us names or think we're weird or whatever, but that does not mean we believe them. We may be misfits, but we're okay. Leastwise, in our own eyes we are, and that's all that matters. — James Howe

If getting is the key to your happiness your key will open few doors. If giving is the key to your happiness you will find few doors locked. — James Howe

Some days I want to put my head in the sand. There's too much pain out there, there's too much that scares me. But I wouldn't be able to breathe with my head in the sand, and I wouldn't be able to hear or see or smell. The world is a lovely place ... despite the sadness it holds for each of us, despite the terrible things we do. — James Howe

When you're living through them, events are nothing more than stuff that happens. You're not thinking about significance. Significance only comes when you look back at your life. — James Howe

It doesn't matter how many times I've been called a name, it still hurts - and it still always comes as such a surprise that I never know how to respond. Or maybe I do, but I'm afraid. — James Howe

Another Thing I'm Sick of Hearing:
If I started that gay rights group,
I must be gay.
So if i start an animal rights group,
what does that make me?
A giraffe? — James Howe