Rebecca Stead Quotes & Sayings

I think things hit me very hard, and I wish I had allowed things to roll off my back a little bit more. — Rebecca Stead

It soaked into me like water into sand, fast and heavy-making. — Rebecca Stead

When you were small, you would swing yourself up legs-first, but now you have to stick your head through the opening in the floor and then hoist the rest. You certainly have grown, you tell yourself. — Rebecca Stead

There was no black line separating Colorado from Utah. There was no black line between friendship and whatever might come next. — Rebecca Stead

Trying to forget really doesn't work. In fact, it's pretty much the same as remembering. But I tried to forget anyway, and to ignore the fact that I was remembering you all the time. — Rebecca Stead

That's what life is. Life is where you sleep and what you see when you wake up in the morning, and who you tell about your weird dream, and what you eat for breakfast and who you eat it with. Life isn't something that happens to you. It's something you make yourself, all the time." -Celeste — Rebecca Stead

Let's say everyone has nine thousand things about themselves," Em had explained to Tab and Bridge in sixth grade, "and say two people fall in love because it seems like all their things match up. But what they don't know is that only like a thousand of their things actually match up. My mom says most people who get married don't even know those other eight thousand things about themselves yet. So it could happen to anyone. — Rebecca Stead

I think that kids are a wonderful, wonderful reader to have in your head. — Rebecca Stead

It was hard to imagine him sneaking around and leaving a rose on anyone's doormat, but I guess boys will surprise you sometimes. — Rebecca Stead

I loved reading all kinds of books, but I particularly loved books like 'Red Planet' by Robert Heinlein, which very few people read anymore but is a wonderful science fiction story. — Rebecca Stead

Nice tights, I snorted. Or I tried to snort, anyway. I'm not exactly sure how, though people in books are always doing it. — Rebecca Stead

I asked myself what it was that I wanted from writing and where my connection with books began, and the answer to that question was definitely in childhood, because that's where my connection with reading began. — Rebecca Stead

Anyway,' Sherm said quietly, 'people fake stuff all the time. — Rebecca Stead

Blue Team! It's what's for breakfast! — Rebecca Stead

Some feeling had started in my stomach and was traveling up to my face, and I knew that when it got there I would turn bright red and hear the ocean, which is what happens when I get put on the spot. If I don't cry, I turn red and hear the ocean. It's a lose-lose situation. — Rebecca Stead

I did hit him for a reason,' he said. 'What you're talking about is a justification. I'm not saying it was the right thing to do. I'm just saying I did it for a reason. My own stupid reason.' I stared at him. 'So what was the reason?' He looked down and shrugged. 'Same reason I do most things. I wanted to see what would happen. — Rebecca Stead

My kids really like food, and they like to cook, so it's a lot of fun to shop with them. — Rebecca Stead

Pajamas are good for the soul. — Rebecca Stead

Mr Heilbroner, as you certainly know, is a minor. We can use the principal's office for a few minutes so that you can brief me about whatever allegations have been made. But of course you can't speak with Mr Heilbroner himself until his parents have been notified. Would you follow me, please? — Rebecca Stead

I had watched them trade best friends, start wars, cry, trade back, make treaties, squeal and grab each other's arms in this fake-excited way, et cetera ... — Rebecca Stead

But at the exact same time I got nervous about that, I also got this other feeling, which I can only describe of as love for Annemarie's elevator. — Rebecca Stead

A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas. — Rebecca Stead

I am hoping to work with writers publishing books for first time, since I of course remember what that experience is like. It's all a bit of a mystery for new authors who don't know what to expect. — Rebecca Stead

Her lids tremble and her eyeballs look like they might disappear into her head. — Rebecca Stead

Bookbag, Pocketshoe. — Rebecca Stead

I try to write about internal experience versus the external self. I like to present ideas, but not package them neatly. — Rebecca Stead

Love is when your heart wraps around something and won't let go. — Rebecca Stead

Look, I know Mom talks about the big picture. She wants you to remember that you'll find new friends, that life is always changing, sometimes in really good ways. But life is also what's happening NOW, Georges. What Dallas and Carter are doing is happening NOW, and you can't just wait for it to be over. We have to do something about it. Now. — Rebecca Stead

From age nine, my friends and I were on the streets, walking home, going to each other's houses, going to the store. I really wanted to write about that: the independence that's a little bit scary but also a really positive thing in a lot of ways. — Rebecca Stead

Life is where you sleep and what you see when you wake up in the morning, and who you tell about your weird dream, and what you eat for breakfast and who you eat it with. Life isn't something that happens to you. It's something you make yourself, all the time. — Rebecca Stead

I think of 'Liar & Spy' as completely different and actually not at all like a 'When You Reach Me'-type story. I feel like 'Liar & Spy' has a much quieter, more emotional revelation. — Rebecca Stead

Many of the books on my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars make people - including me
happy. — Rebecca Stead

There was a boy in my building who was my best friend when I was growing up. There was also a mysterious person on my corner who we called the Laughing Man. — Rebecca Stead

Try really, really hard not to judge your own work too harshly. — Rebecca Stead

When she was eight years old, Bridget Barsamian woke up in a hospital, where a doctor told her she shouldn't be alive. It's possible that he was complimenting her heart's determination to keep pumping when half her blood was still uptown on 114th Street, but more likely he was scolding her for roller-skating into traffic the way she had. — Rebecca Stead

Isn't that the whole idea?' I asked. 'It's supposed to stop them from being criminals!' She shook her head. 'That's not what I mean. A lot of people make bad mistakes. But being in jail can make them feel like a mistake is all they are. Like they aren't even people anymore. — Rebecca Stead

I read a whole lot as a child, and, of course, I still read children's books. — Rebecca Stead

We have lunch at ten-forty-five, Colin said. A stupidly early lunch. At our school, the older you get, the stupider your lunch period. — Rebecca Stead

Mom's always telling me to smile and hoping I'll turn into a smiley person, which, to be honest, is kind of annoying. — Rebecca Stead

so mom got the postcard today — Rebecca Stead

If I'm afraid of someone on the street, I'll turn to him (it's always a boy) and say, "Excuse me, do you happen to know what time it is?" This is my way of saying to the person, "I see you as a friend, and there is no need to hurt me or take my stuff. Also, I don't even have a watch and I am probably not worth mugging." So far, it's worked like gangbusters ... And I've discovered that most people I'm afraid of are actually very friendly. — Rebecca Stead

Em: I'm falling apart. That's what I'm trying to tell you
Bridge: You're not falling apart. You're scared.
Em: Isn't that the same thing?
Bridge: No — Rebecca Stead

It's crazy the things a person can pretend not to notice. — Rebecca Stead

My books tend to have a lot of questions in them, and they tend to avoid black and white, for lack of a better metaphor. — Rebecca Stead

I knew it. I just knew it." We had been robbed after all. — Rebecca Stead

Like when that man was running down Broadway stark naked and we all had to eat in the cafeteria while the police tried to catch him. — Rebecca Stead

If you took every tear cried by everyone on earth on one single day and put them in a container, how big would that container need to be? Could you fill a water tower? Three water towers? It's one of those unknowable things. There has to be an answer, but we'll never know what it is. — Rebecca Stead

I felt vulnerable and very much between friends. I remember walking down the hallway and thinking I had no way of knowing what was coming, literally. This wasn't because I had some horrific bullying story, but because of a steady drip of negativity. — Rebecca Stead

I've met seven homeschooling families through many, many extracurricular activities such as fencing. I don't have a point of view of homeschooling. For some families, homeschooling works. — Rebecca Stead

Every published writer suffers through that first draft because most of the time, that's a disappointment. — Rebecca Stead

Dad is looking at the bookshelves, deep in thought, deciding which book should go where. Once, Mom came home from work and discovered that he had turned all the books around so that the bindings were against the wall and the pages faced out. He said it was calming not to have all those words floating around and "creating static." Mom made him turn them back. She said it was too hard to find a book when she couldn't read the titles. Then she poured herself a big glass of wine. — Rebecca Stead

I think that when you don't know, you should just wait until you do. — Rebecca Stead

It is, actually," Sherm said, looking her straight in the eyes, the way he had during the intruder drill. "Best thing ever. — Rebecca Stead

And if you've got a voice, you might as well use it, right? — Rebecca Stead

I wish I could see what would have hapenned if I hadn't told. You told me once that every time a decision is made, the universe splits into two. So now there's a universe in which I kept my mouth shut. But I can't see what it looks like. — Rebecca Stead

Love is when you like someone so much that you can't just call it "like," so you have to call it "love. — Rebecca Stead

People act like riddles are hard, but real life is harder. In real life, there are always more than two doors -Sherm — Rebecca Stead

Who's the real you? The person who did something awful, or the one who's horrified by the awful thing you did? Is one part of you allowed to forgive the other? — Rebecca Stead

Life was anything but fast, in your opinion. If it went any more slowly, time would probably start to run backward. — Rebecca Stead

Maybe it should just make you feel lucky. Yeah, you were really lucky you didn't die after the accident. But you were a lot luckier to be born in the first place. So if you're here for a reason, maybe we all are. — Rebecca Stead

In so many ways, being a literary agent is an irresistible job to me. Not only does it involve all the things I love - being an advocate for others, problem solving, and going to meetings - yes, that's true, I love meetings, though everyone says it's bizarre! - but most importantly, I love working with people whose writing excites me. — Rebecca Stead

'Middle school' is used as shorthand for a time when things change. It's a time a lot of kids feel like they don't even have one good friend. — Rebecca Stead

Tab's mom said that when people reached out to hurt your feelings, it was because they secretly felt they deserved to be talked to that way. She said that they had 'long, hard roads ahead' and that you should just wish them well. — Rebecca Stead

I never had a favourite book! I liked all kinds of things - science fiction, so I read Heinlen and Ray Bradbury, and I also liked reading about kids like myself, so I read Judy Blume and Norma Klein and Paula Danzinger and a lot of other writers. I also read James Herriot! — Rebecca Stead

I am basically in awe of every family's ability to make decisions for their kids. — Rebecca Stead

On Sunday, I think the most important thing for me is to just turn my brain off. The idea of not trying is the key, because that's where you're relaxed enough to let your brain make new connections. — Rebecca Stead

We're allowed as adults to create a life that we like. Kids don't have that freedom. — Rebecca Stead

Why don't you and Patrick actually talk to each other?" Tab said. Em looked up. "Are you demented? And say what? — Rebecca Stead

And books all over the floor, some stocked in piles, some worn-looking, some brand-new, some splayed upside down, some sliding off the pink bedside table next to the lamp with the orange fabric shade. — Rebecca Stead

Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. It's like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten. And the way you usually act, the things you would have normally done, are like these ghosts that everyone can see but pretends not to. — Rebecca Stead

I think that my first book - I was trying to write the kind of book I would have loved as a kid. So it's sort of, like, a book inspired by my childhood reading and the passion that I felt about reading when I was a kid. — Rebecca Stead

Anyone who's familiar with my writing schedule knows that there is always plenty of time between books for me! — Rebecca Stead

You can have it all, but you can't have it all at once. — Rebecca Stead

Good morning!' Mom was standing in front of the stove, making bacon. 'Annemarie, I called your dad last night, and he told me that you have a thing for bacon omelettes.' 'Yum!' Annemarie said. 'That smells great. No wonder I'm so hungry.' I was staring. Mom had serious bed head and her eyes were puffy with sleep. But she was up at seven-thirty in the morning, making us bacon omelettes. I wanted to hug her. But didn't. — Rebecca Stead

She's called the secretary, but as far as I can tell she basically runs the school. — Rebecca Stead

I would never look a gift horse in the mouth. I've had some lovely homemade earrings and, recently, a wall hanging made in the style of Georges Seurat. — Rebecca Stead

I guess my question is: Is the new you the stranger? Or is the stranger the person you leave behind? -Sherm — Rebecca Stead

I have nothing like a writing routine. I sometimes have trouble buckling down to write at home. — Rebecca Stead

I'm always thinking about identity. And the middle-school years are a time of exploring questions about who you are and who you want to be. For the first time, you see the world in a broader sense. — Rebecca Stead

Life was a too-tall stack of books that had started to lean to one side, and each new day was another book on top. — Rebecca Stead

The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that no one is stopping you. There's no one saying, 'You can't do that.' — Rebecca Stead

I personally find the ideas that girls need to cover their shoulders in school a little bit strange ... when we're telling girls, you know, 'You have to cover your shoulders because otherwise you're a distraction to other people in your class,' probably something is wrong. — Rebecca Stead

I do try to write in ways that reflect reality, and I think that reality is rarely simple. — Rebecca Stead

Life is a million different dots making one gigantic picture. And maybe the big picture is nice, maybe it's amazing, but if you're standing with your face pressed up against a bunch of black dots, it's really hard to tell. — Rebecca Stead

Bridge knew why she was here. It's why we're all here, she thought. Call it Mr. Partridge with his black-and-white cookies. Call it Em standing on that stage with her knees shaking but her voice strong. Call it Jamie looking awkward in the doorway of her bedroom after she'd had the mummy nightmare. Call it love. — Rebecca Stead

Marcus's face lit up. 'Stop - I see your problem! You're thinking that time exists on the diamonds themselves. It doesn't. Each moment - each diamond - is like a snapshot.' 'A snapshot of what?' 'Of everything, everywhere! There's no time in a picture, right? It's the jumping, from one diamond to the next, that we call time, but like I said, time doesn't really exist. Like that girl just said, a diamond is a moment, and all the diamonds on the ring are happening at the same time. It's like having a drawer full of pictures.' 'On the ring,' I said. 'Yes! All the diamonds exist at once!' He looked triumphant. — Rebecca Stead

Mostly what I try to do is build emotion. Only I'd prefer not to do it by telling you about emotion but by pushing that emotion down. — Rebecca Stead

My grandfather used to say that everyone alive has already beaten the craziest odds, just being born. Like one in a trillion. Your parents could have had a million different kids, but they had you. And before that could happen, your parents had to be born themselves, and their parents had to be born. — Rebecca Stead

While the rest of the class is hanging on every syllable that comes out of Mr. Landau's mouth, I'm looking at the false tongue poster and I'm kind of wishing it wasn't wrong. There's something nice about those thick black arrows: sour here, salty there, like there's a right place for everything. Instead of the total confusion the human tongue actually turns out to be. — Rebecca Stead

There's this trouble with books for me because I'm terrible at thinking of titles. The truth is, even with the titles that I've landed on in the end, they always feel wrong. I think it's because of this whole problem of having to package your book in a certain way. — Rebecca Stead

As a reader, I much prefer to read a book where people embody all kinds of ideas and everybody is making mistakes. — Rebecca Stead

I grew up mostly an only child. My dad remarried when I was a teenager. And then I had two stepbrothers. And then my dad had a second child. So I have a brother from the time I was 15. But I really grew up feeling like an only child. — Rebecca Stead

What's the burn scale? — Rebecca Stead

It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission. — Rebecca Stead

People don't want to think about it.' 'I can see why,' I said. 'It makes my head hurt.' 'Still, you did better than most people. You're a pretty smart kid.' I rolled my eyes. 'Gee, thanks. — Rebecca Stead

Common sense is just a name for the way we're used to thinking. — Rebecca Stead

If you smile for no reason at all you will actually start to feel happy — Rebecca Stead

He nodded like he felt sorry for me and my stupid brain. 'I think that's probably because of your common sense. You can't accept the idea of arriving before you leave, the idea that every moment is happening at the same time, that it's us who are moving - ' Enough was enough. — Rebecca Stead

Mom. She always says to look at the big picture. How all of the little things don't matter in the long run ... I know that Mom is right about the big picture. But Dad is right too: Life is really just a bunch of nows, one after the other. The dots matter. — Rebecca Stead

I don't know. I just feel stuck, like I'm afraid to take any steps, in case they're the wrong ones. — Rebecca Stead