"My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid."
— Joan Bauer

"When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian."
— Joan Bauer

"You've got to love yourself with all your short comings, and you've got to love the world no matter how bad it gets."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"We read to learn and to grow, to laugh, to be motivated, and to understand things we've never been exposed to. We read for strength to help us when we feel broken, discouraged or afraid. We read to find hope. We read because we're not just made up of skin and bones, and a deep need for chocolate, but we're also made up of words, words which describe our thoughts and what's hidden in our hearts."
— Joan Bauer

"...motherhood should be like driving a car -- you should have to pass a test before you can do it legally."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"Staring down hard truth takes guts."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"You cannot measure the loss of a human life. It's all the things a person was, all their dreams, all the people who loved them, all they hoped to be and could give back to the world."
— Joan Bauer (Stand Tall)

"My father always told me that in this world we are going to make a truckload of mistakes, but the best mistake we can ever make is to err on the side of mercy"
— Joan Bauer (Best Foot Forward)

"The problem with the heart is how it can have so many opposite feelings coursing through it all at the same time. It's really an inconsistent thing- appreciating something one minute and hating it the next. "
— Joan Bauer (Best Foot Forward)

" Have you ever noticed that it takes a textbook dozens of pages to say what normal people can cover fast?
Example:
What was the full impact of World War II?
Clear-cut teenage answer: we won."
— Joan Bauer

"I've never said this to a girl before."
I bit my lip, waiting.
"Well..." He looked down. "I'm not sure how to say this." He took a deep breath and announced, "I really like fighting evil with you."
— Joan Bauer (Peeled)

"You don't know which way a thing will come at you, but you need to welcome it with your whole heart which ever way it arrives."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"They marched. Not for themselves. They marched to remember the ones who didn't make it back. They marched because seeing so much loss can teach you about life. they marched because we're all fighting a war whether we know it or not...a war for our minds and souls and what we believe in."
— Joan Bauer (Stand Tall)

"...It isn't the problems along the way that make us or break us. It's how we learn to stand and face them that makes the difference."
— Joan Bauer

"New places always help us look at life differently"
— Joan Bauer

"It was probably easier in the old days when the bad guys rode into town wearing black capes or whatever bad guys wore and the milk cows were ownded by honest people. Right off the bat, you'd know who you were dealing with. Now everybody dresses alike."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"It seemed to me that the people who made the rules of the road had figured out everything that would help a person drive safely right down to having a sign that tells you you're passing through a place where deer cross. Somebody should stick up some signs on the highway of life.

CAUTION: JERKS CROSSING.

Blinking yellow lights when you're about to to something stupid.

Stop signs in front of people who could hurt you.

Green lights shining when you're doing the right thing.

It would make the whole experience easier."
— Joan Bauer (Rules of the Road)

"And we learned that you don't have to be famous or rich or physically healthy to be a leader. You just have to try to be a true person. We learned that helping other people brings out the good in everybody."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

""When we don't have the words chocolate can speak volumes.""
— Joan Bauer

"Sometimes you've got to shout the truth and wake people up."
— Joan Bauer (Stand Tall)

"Like my grandmother always said, 'you never know the blessings that come from suffering."
— Joan Bauer (Rules of the Road)

"...Difficult relationships come into our lives for a reason. No one would choose them, certainly. But if we let them, they can teach us how to be flexible with others and more forgiving."
— Joan Bauer

""I hope you'll have the kind of life where what you stand for is so important that it makes some people outright hostile. You won't know how strong your beliefs really are until you have to defend them.""
— Joan Bauer (Best Foot Forward)

"When you can carry five full dinner platters on your left arm, you should be able to vote, even if you're not eighteen."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"He stood up, put the tree back under the grow light. 'There. That's what's going to happen to us. It's called grafting. Taking something from one place and fixing it to another until they grow together. We didn't start from the same tree, but we're going to grow together like we did.'"
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"I looked at her from the corner of my eye. Some people are hard to imagine as children."
— Joan Bauer (Rules of the Road)

"Some things go too deep for words."
— Joan Bauer (Rules of the Road)

"The sad heart needs work to do."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

""Mountains draw you to a deeper place in yourself""
— Joan Bauer

"When you listen to G. T. Stoop, you understand the importance of being a honorable person, you get charged to fight for the truth, you get angry that so many politicians are playing games with people's trust."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"Librarians understand about power - they know how to find anything."
— Joan Bauer (Best Foot Forward)

"Are you some kind of foot fetish?"
— Joan Bauer (Best Foot Forward)

"Huevos up. Swing up to the window, swing back to Al B. Hall, who says, "Bless you," and would I get him a bottle of Satan's Red-Hot Revenge for the eggs?
Sure thing, Pastor."
— Joan Bauer (Hope Was Here)

"i hate leaving places i love i was never at one place long. am i selfish?"
— Joan Bauer

"We've got a bozo who likes rubbing fear and lies in people's faces. He's the only media source in town except us. Who are we writing for?"

Elizabeth waved her hand emotionally. "The American people!"

Baker clasped his brow. "Let's narrow that."

Darrell stood. "We're writing for the community."

"And they deserve the facts," Baker warned. "Don't ever forget it."
— Joan Bauer (Peeled)