Cooney Quotes & Sayings

You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing. — Gerry Cooney

When in doubt, shut up. — Caroline B. Cooney

it her fault that the graveyard has the best dirt? She loves her plants! Just — Ellen Cooney

Seventh grade had a full complement of creeps, weirdos, future criminals, and nerds. — Caroline B. Cooney

Listen to the sea ... it sounds like a coffin being dragged over broken glass. — Caroline B. Cooney

She was an enthusiastic painter of oils and watercolors. She was also very generous. I could mess with her paints and brushes all I wanted. On one condition: that I kept my brushes clean. The only art lesson my mother gave me was how to wash my brushes. — Barbara Cooney

But I found my family. I found the right thing to do. I found the way home. — Caroline B. Cooney

It was not until I was in my forties, in the fifth decade of my life, that the sense of place, the spirit of place, became of paramount importance to me. It was then that I began my travels, that I discovered, through photography, the quality of light, and that I gradually became able to paint the mood of place. — Barbara Cooney

I believe my voice is pretty much the same. I've written 75 books, so I'm better at it now than I was earlier in my career. — Caroline B. Cooney

I wish I could tell you that the Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street were thanks to my genius, but it really was a lucky break. — Joan Ganz Cooney

Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society. — Joan Ganz Cooney

I thought of the parable of the prodigal son. We had made merry for the beloved child's return too - but what happens when the beloved child doesn't say she's sorry? The parable doesn't talk about that. Jesus figures of course you're sorry. Jesus, I thought, you blew it. Not everybody is sorry. — Caroline B. Cooney

I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time. — Gerry Cooney

What would she have? Coke, said Annie. And when she tasted the familiar drink, how much less scary the world was, and how much less frightening her task. — Caroline B. Cooney

To be believed, you had to have the support of the Somebodies — Caroline B. Cooney

Actually my first eight books were historical novels, but they were never published. — Caroline B. Cooney

It's not whether children learn from television, it's what children learn from television ... because everything that children see on television is teaching them something. — Joan Ganz Cooney

The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake. — Gerry Cooney

If she dreamed, she did not remember when she awoke. — Caroline B. Cooney

Kahnawake
November 1704
Temperature 44 degrees

"They won't let you see her," said Ruth flatly. "Now tell us, Mr. Williams, why has ransom not come? Do people have short memories or no memory? Why do they not rescue us? I get so angry sometimes."
Sometimes! thought Mercy. — Caroline B. Cooney

But sometimes, in tight corners, when your back is against the wall and the world is against you, you have to fight back in unexpected ways. — Caroline B. Cooney

And Ruth was the last person to whom a sensible Indian would hand a weapon. — Caroline B. Cooney

She had spent the summer forgetting to be English--and Tannhahorens had spent the summer forgetting the same thing. — Caroline B. Cooney

Who was Florinda, and why did she faint so often that she needed a special couch on which to do it? — Caroline B. Cooney

Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh. — Gerry Cooney

The question for me was, could TV actually teach? I knew it could, because I knew 3-year-olds who sang beer commercials! — Joan Ganz Cooney

Sometimes when dogs greeted a returning soldier, they'd go over the edge. They would have to take a few moments to run crazily in circles around the human, or around a room or a yard. I'd have to take a break from watching, so my brain had a chance to absorb what I was seeing: that there is such a thing as joy being bigger than the container that holds it. — Ellen Cooney

There is a young and impressionable mind out there that is hungry for information. It has latched on to an electronic tube as its main source of nourishment. — Joan Ganz Cooney

I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting ... . I will never talk down to, or draw down to, children. — Barbara Cooney

The most crippling part of my personality is that as much as I want to know something, I can't bear admitting I'm ignorant. It's as if I think I should have been born knowing and understanding all. As if when I say out loud, what are you talking about? the world will point and jeer. — Caroline B. Cooney

My degree was in education, but the idea of being a teacher lost out to being a reporter. I worked at a newspaper for a while, then went to New York and worked in PR at RCA and NBC, and at 'The United States Steel Hour,' a drama series. — Joan Ganz Cooney

I'm interesting, she thought. I'm unusual. But I'm not beautiful ... — Caroline B. Cooney

She had a sense of herself being brain dead: running on tubes and machines. — Caroline B. Cooney

She was a mind floating in an ocean of confusion. — Caroline B. Cooney

Lying on the front passenger seat, as if it didn't matter, was Rose's Diary.
It Mattered. — Caroline B. Cooney

I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion. — Gerry Cooney

What more can life hold, than to know that because of your story, somebody out there has decided to read again! — Caroline B. Cooney

Breakfast delivered on a tray every morning is joy, and so is a meal at noon if she doesn't go out. To dine every evening in an alcove of the inn set aside specially for the Morleys is a fore-taste of heaven. The alcove is large enough to entertain guests; they have use of a secluded parlor as well. Lydia could serve on committees, receive callers, go shopping, order a carriage whenever she felt like it, visit her children's houses and spoil her grandchildren without having them all congregate at the house and make chaos. — Ellen Cooney

But West, like the rest of the Trevors, was endlessly polite. It gave them protection; they could stand neatly behind their courtesy. — Caroline B. Cooney

When that bell rang, I wanted to go out there and do my thing. — Gerry Cooney

I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they're going on to read another book. I'm thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun. — Caroline B. Cooney

Guys with nice person names try to be sympathetic. — Caroline B. Cooney

Fall in love with me, Gary! She thought. Please. Please sit here holding me and think there's nowhere on earth I'd rather be than here, and no girl I'd rather have in my lap than Beth Rose Chapman! — Caroline B. Cooney

In a world where seasons of planting harvests and inundation ruled life and death, it was imperative to bring the gods into daily life to help things along. The more a king invested in festivals of cyclical renewal, the more prosperity the gods bestowed. But if the gods were ignored, bad floods would result, and that meant meager planting and poor harvest, which led in turn to drought, pestilence, disease and death. — Kara Cooney

They ended up at the Old Corner Bookstore, which Brian had read about in a tour guide to Boston. "Longfellow and Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes used to read here. Let's go in." Brian nudged the girls until they obeyed.
It was a regular bookstore, less history-minded than Brian had expected. In fact, the local history shelves were quite mangeable. I'll buy one book, he thought. This will get me launched in actual reading. Out of the zillions of choices, I'll find one here.
Brian picked out Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. It was thick and somehow exciting, with its chapter headings and scholarly notes and bibliography. — Caroline B. Cooney

Stephen had just come from a class discussion in which several students believed that the right cup of herbal tea would save them from pain and sorrow. Well acquainted with pain and sorrow, Stephen did not contribute to the discussion. He merely crossed these idiots off his list of possible friends. — Caroline B. Cooney

No life should pass unnoticed. — Eleanor Cooney

I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession. — Caroline B. Cooney

By the time you're 30 years old, you can be on a nowhere street, if you're not careful. — Gerry Cooney

How can you be somebody else's savior, when you can't be your own? — Caroline B. Cooney

She had gradually changed her name. "Jane" was too dull. Last year, she'd added a "y", becoming Jayne, which had more personality. — Caroline B. Cooney

I wrote eight full-length adult novels in my twenties. None of them were published. — Caroline B. Cooney

It was darker in the tower than any place Devnee had ever been. The dark had textures, some velvet, some satin. The dark shifted positions.
The dark continued to breathe. The breath of the tower lifted her clothing like the flaps of a tent, and sounded in her ears like falling snow.
It's the wind coming through the double shutters, Devnee told herself.
But how could the wind come through? There were glass windows between the inside and outside shutters.
Or were there?
The windows weren't just holes in the wall, were they?
What if there was no glass? What if things crawled through those open louvers, crept into the room, blew in with the cold that fingered her hair? What creatures of the night could slither through those slats?
She had not realized how wonderful glass was, how it protected you and kept you inside.
She knew something was out there. — Caroline B. Cooney

I wonder why we always deny love. I remember in middle school, if you were accused of the crime of loving, you screamed denials constantly and stopped ever even looking at the boy you were accused of liking. The boys could destroy each other by yodeling, "An-drew lo-oves Jen-nie," and both Andrew and Jennie would flinch and blush. Love is this great thing that most songs and books and poems and lives are all about. So the minute we actually think there might be love around, we start laughing and pretending and hiding from it. — Caroline B. Cooney

I was brought up Catholic, and even as a little girl I was affected by the idea of giving back - doing something for the needy, something of significance. — Joan Ganz Cooney

The sea can smack the rocks like a hand smacking a cheek. It can hiss or gurgle or even kiss. But when it wants, it can go quiet. 'And then', said Anya Rothrock, 'you can hear the voices of the drowned'. — Caroline B. Cooney

Here we are sitting at the Waldorf in a conference room... and in comes someone with long hair and wearing an outfit dripping leather. I remember whispering to Dave Connell, "How do we know that man back there isn't going to throw a bomb up here or toss a hand grenade?"
Connell, always one to keep a cool head, assessed the situation with care. He discreetly turned his head toward the back and realized he recognized the tall, angular man carrying a small purse under his arm. A slight smile curled as he assured Cooney the hippie back there posed no threat.
"Not likely, that's Jim Henson," he said. — Michael Davis

'Miss Rumphius' has been, perhaps, the closest to my heart. There are, of course, many dissimilarities between me and Alice Rumphius, but, as I worked, she gradually seemed to become my alter ego. Perhaps she had been that right from the start. — Barbara Cooney

Breakfast was only worth having when somebody else made it for you. — Caroline B. Cooney

My favorite book is always the one I'm working on at the moment. — Caroline B. Cooney

then the bottom fell out of everything that used to have a bottom, and now she's expected to kill her own plants. At — Ellen Cooney

I believe my readers are crazy about their parents and want to be just like them when they grow up. — Caroline B. Cooney

I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they'll need to really pay attention to it. — Gerry Cooney

You must love teaching', one mother said to Mr. Shevvington. 'Yes indeed. I think of each class as a zoo.' He laughed..'Twenty-six to a cage. — Caroline B. Cooney

I approach serious subjects, and I like to have the good guys win and have the parents among the good guys. — Caroline B. Cooney

I did not even go to kindergarten; I just started first grade when I was five and started reading right away. I don't know how it all worked, but I had a lot of adults and older siblings around me. So, I guess I was probably introduced to what one would be introduced to at that time in kindergarten. — Joan Ganz Cooney

I actually thought you would be kind," said the vampire.
"Go away!" screamed Devnee.
He did not answer.
"I didn't have to be kind," Devnee told him. "Victoria was kind for me."
He laughed.
"No one can be kind for you, my dear," said the vampire. "But I don't mind, of course. I have you now. There's no escape, my dear. You and I, Devnee Fountain, are a team. — Caroline B. Cooney

She was healthy & thriving, like a weed: a weed with no interest in trying to become, say, a proper flower. — Ellen Cooney

Big Bird was the biggest star, I mean, children's favorite for a number of years. I have a 22-year-old granddaughter whose first words were 'Big Bird.' — Joan Ganz Cooney

Male leaders are celebrated for their successes, while their excesses are typically excused as the necessary and expected price of masculine ambition. — Kara Cooney

If you write a story based on a real person, you're trapped by the details of the real person and his life. It gets in the way of writing your own story. — Caroline B. Cooney

It wasn't that she stopped being nice; she stopped being anything — Caroline B. Cooney

All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. So when the fighter is through, he is through. While he was fighting his management was very excited for him, but now that he is done, that management team is moving on. — Gerry Cooney

It wasn't about Larry Holmes, if I would have fought a brother I wouldn't have gotten the money I got. Give me 10 black guys and I make eight dollars. Give me Gerry Cooney and I make $10 million. — Larry Holmes

She stared at the dark shimmer of glass that faced the street. The Clares never pulled curtains. They were comftorable with the dark. But there was another kind of dark. The darkness of minds full of hate. — Caroline B. Cooney

You have a girlfriend?" said Brian. "You never told us."
"I'm not going to tell you now either. Don't tell Mom and Dad, don't tell Jodie, don't tell Bren."
"Why not?" said Brian. "Mom and Dad would be thrilled. Unless she's some disgusting skank leading you down a sick and twisted path. — Caroline B. Cooney

Strat yearned to imagine her without even the thin white dress, but it would not be honorable, so he prevented himself from having such a fantasy. — Caroline B. Cooney

I was a TV producer at a noncommercial station, and we were producing some good documentaries - on Head Start, on poverty. But I was struck by the children, and the damage that poverty was doing to them. I didn't think filming them was helping much, so I wondered how we could use TV for them, to teach them. — Joan Ganz Cooney

Bianca and Mindy crept into the room like great big fashionable mice. — Caroline B. Cooney

It's been one nightmare after another, Christina thought. Pretty soon I won't be able to keep track of them all. — Caroline B. Cooney

I have no beliefs," said her mother. "Only hopes. — Caroline B. Cooney

He felt blind and deaf, the way he did when he was close to a good idea but couldn't tap into it. He'd told Lizzie about that feeling once, and Lizzie had said, That just means you aren't very smart, Reeve. Smart people have good ideas without having to be blind and deaf first. — Caroline B. Cooney

My favorite days were when I had a cold and could stay home from school and draw all day long. — Barbara Cooney

If I were a seagull
I wouldn't have to stick around
If people argued- I would fly off,
swerve, wheel, dip, scream.
a thousand wings of company if I have friends
two strong wings of my own
If I don't — Caroline B. Cooney

You must do something to make the world more beautiful - Ms. Rumphius — Barbara Cooney

Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics. — Gerry Cooney

She had never had a daydream that dreamed itself, like nightmares. That crawled out of her brain like a creature of the dark. A daymare. — Caroline B. Cooney

father knocked on her door. "Kitten? May I come — Caroline B. Cooney

I didn't fight this fight for the blacks, the whites or the Spanish, I fought th fight for the people. We're all God's children. I don't see color. I'm not a racist When I look at Gerry Cooney, I just see a man trying to take my head off. — Larry Holmes

I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym. — Gerry Cooney

Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning. — Gerry Cooney

I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker. — Caroline B. Cooney

People nearly always believe, and are willing to back it up with weapons and cruelty, that their religion and way of life is better than the other person's. — Caroline B. Cooney

You take that walk from the dressing room to the ring and that's when the real man comes out. Then you climb up those four stairs and into the ring. Then finally, you can't wait for the bell to ring. — Gerry Cooney

People think they own time. They have watches and clocks and digital pulses. But they are wrong. Time owns them. — Caroline B. Cooney

I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me. — Gerry Cooney

Probably any successful career has X number of breaks in it, and maybe the difference between successful people and those who aren't super achievers is taking advantage of those breaks. — Joan Ganz Cooney

More clumsily,he put his arm around her and tried to hug. They were definitely amateurs at showing affection. — Caroline B. Cooney

I'm one of the lucky writers: plots come easily to me. — Caroline B. Cooney

Lark did not know how her parents would behave in public. They never came to anything, even teacher conferences. They had basically skipped Lark's life. She didn't mind. She had made her own. — Caroline B. Cooney