"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
— Pablo Picasso

"What then do we live for, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn. "
— Mr. Bennett, Pride and Prejudice

"Writers have no real area of expertise. They are merely generalists with a highly inflamed sense of punctuation."
— Lorrie Moore

"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
— Flannery O'Connor

"They say that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Well I think the gun helps. If you just stood there and yelled BANG, I don't think you'd kill too many people."
— Eddie Izzard

"It is a well know fact that reality has liberal bias"
— Stephen Colbert

"I should like to bury something precious in every place where I've been happy and then, when I'm old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember."
— Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited)

"Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people."
— Roald Dahl

"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck."
— Joss Whedon

"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
— Madeleine L'Engle

"Just like any woman,...we weave our stories out of our bodies. Some of us through our children, or our art; some do it just by living. It's all the same."
— Francesca Lia Block

"Bit by bit, putting it together...
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art.
Every moment makes a contribution,
Every little detail plays a part.
Having just the vision's no solution,
Everything depends on execution,
Putting it together, that's what counts."
— Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George)

"THE FIRST TEN LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL

1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more of you here.
7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.
8. Your schedule was created with you in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.

TEN MORE LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL

1. You will use algebra in your adult lives.
2. Driving to school is a privilege that can be taken away.
3. Students must stay on campus during lunch.
4. The new text books will arrive any day now.
5. Colleges care more about you than your SAT scores.
6. We are enforcing the dress code.
7. We will figure out how to turn off the heat soon.
8. Our bus drivers are highly trained professionals.
9. There is nothing wrong with summer school.
10. We want to hear what you have to say."
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)

"Father, bless me for I have sinned, I did an original sin… I poked a badger with a spoon."
— Eddie Izzard

"There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good."
— Stephen Colbert

"Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all."
— Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited)

"This is what happened in love. One of you cried a lot and then both of you grew sarcastic."
— Lorrie Moore (Like Life)

"You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them."
— Maurice Sendak

"The verbal patterns and the patterns of behavior we present to children in these lighthearted confections are likely to influence them for the rest of their lives. These aesthetic impressions, just like the moral teachings of early childhood, remain indelible."
— Esphyr Slobodkina

"Repeat after me, Mr. Black: I do believe in commas. I do, I do."
— Jaida Jones