Quotes by Gary Paulsen

I tried to contain myself... but I escaped!

And the last thought he had that morning as he closed his eyes was: I hope the tornado hit the moose.

This is the final book about Brian

If books could have more, give more, be more, show more, they would still need readers who bring to them sound and smell and light and all the rest that can’t be in books. The book needs you.

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.

I wish I had a dollar for every hour Ive spent in the library, he always says. I have to agree- wed probably never have to worry about money again.

Why do I read?I just cant help myself.I read to learn and to grow, to laugh and to be motivated.I read to understand things Ive never been exposed to.I read when Im crabby, when Ive just said monumentally dumb things to the people I love.I read for strength to help me when I feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.I read when Im angry at the whole world.I read when everything is going right.I read to find hope.I read because Im made up not just of skin and bones, of sights, feelings, and a deep need for chocolate, but Im also made up of words.Words describe my thoughts and whats hidden in my heart.Words are alive--when Ive found a story that I love, I read it again and again, like playing a favorite song over and over.Reading isnt passive--I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when theyre about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them.Reading for me, is spending time with a friend.A book is a friend.You can never have too many.

Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience - waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.

The book is that is the good one is Woodsong and we are trying to finish it.

This is going to be murder, Fransic whispered to Mr. Trimes. Pure murder.Im glad to see your confidence returning, Mr. Tucket. Just a few minutes ago you were ready to give up. Now youre talking about killing him.I meant it the other way.Oh.

I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea.

...this beginning motion, this first time when a sail truly filled and the boat took life and knifed across the lake under perfect control, this was so beautiful it stopped my breath...

All the luck in the world has to come every year, in every part of every year, or there is not a harvest and then the luck, the bad luck will come and everything we are, all that we can ever be, all the Einsteins and babies and love and hate, all the joy and sadness and sex and wanting and liking and disliking, all the soft summer breezes on cheeks and first snowflakes, all the Van Goghs and Rembrandts and Mozarts and Mahlers and Thomas Jeffersons and Lincolns and Ghandis and Jesus Christs, all the Cleopatras and lovemaking and riches and achievements and progress, all of that, every single damn thing that we are or ever will be is dependent on six inches of topsoil and the fact that the rain comes when its needed and does not come when it is not needed; everything, every...single...thing comes with that luck.

She was brilliant and joyous and she believed- probably correctly- that libraries contain the answers to all things, to everything, and that if you cant find the information you seek in the library, then such information probably doesnt exist in this or any parallel universe now or ever to be known. She was thoughtful and kind and she always believed the best of everybody. She was, above all else, a master librarian and she knew where to find any book on any subject in the shortest possible time. And she was wonderfully unhinged.

I think that what computers have done is just disastrous to the language.

I have a pickup truck. And I prefer to be with dogs or on my sailboat than in a car - actually, more than any other place on Earth.

Adults are locked into car payments and divorces and work. They havent got time to think fresh.

Im a teller of stories. I put bloody skins on my back and dance around the fire, and I say what the hunt was like. Its not erudite; its not intellectual. I sail, run dogs, ride horses, play professional poker, and tell stories about the stuff Ive been through. And Im still a romantic; I still want Bambi to make it out of the fire.

I sail, run dogs, ride horses, play professional poker and tell stories about the stuff Ive been through. And Im still a romantic; I still want Bambi to make it out of the fire.