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" We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct. "
Walter Dean Myers
Know
Eat
Exercise
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" I was a good student, but a speech impediment was causing problems. One of my teachers decided that I couldn't pronounce certain words at all. She thought that if I wrote something, I would use words I could pronounce. I began writing little poems. I began to write short stories, too. "
Walter Dean Myers
Words
Writing
Good
" As a child I wanted to be a professional athlete or lawyer. "
Walter Dean Myers
Athlete
Professional
Child
" We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional. "
Walter Dean Myers
Need
Kids
Flat
" So many organizations have a mentoring arm, but they don't really do it. Their idea of mentoring a kid is giving them general advice. But what they need to do is read with children. "
Walter Dean Myers
Children
Giving
Advice
" I had seen the ballet of 'Swan Lake' as a child but it was as an adult, when I saw a production featuring Erik Bruhn, that I first noticed how significant a part the ever-present threat of violence played. This juxtaposition of great beauty and grace with a backdrop of pure evil stayed with me for years. "
Walter Dean Myers
Me
Grace
Great
" I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott. "
Walter Dean Myers
Enjoy
Having
Would
" I like people who take responsibility for their lives. "
Walter Dean Myers
Responsibility
People
Like
" There was a time I was no longer going to be black. I was going to be an 'intellectual.' When I was first looking around for colleges, thinking of colleges I couldn't afford to go to, I was thinking of being a philosopher. I began to understand then that much of my feelings about race were negative. "
Walter Dean Myers
Time
Negative
Looking
" I couldn't speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that sense. "
Walter Dean Myers
Sense
Speech
Therapy
" I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head. "
Walter Dean Myers
Never
Live
Head
" Children have adopted a consumerist attitude - I dare you to entertain me. "
Walter Dean Myers
Children
You
Me
" I began going to juvenile prisons. And some of these kids face some very, very tough lives. How do they handle these lives? Do they even know that if their life is bad, that they're still OK? Do they know that? Do they know that someone is thinking the same way that they're thinking? "
Walter Dean Myers
Know
Face
Thinking
" When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat. "
Walter Dean Myers
Picture
War
Society
" I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings. "
Walter Dean Myers
War
Romantic
Poetry
" When my family fell apart, it was such a troubled part of my life... I think I could understand what I was going through, but I didn't have the vocabulary for it. "
Walter Dean Myers
My Life
Think
Understand
" Like the Negro League players, I traveled through the segregated south as a young man. Because I was black, I was denied service at many restaurants and could only drink from water fountains marked 'Colored.' When I went to the movies, I would have to sit in the Colored balcony. "
Walter Dean Myers
Movies
Sit
Man
" There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities. "
Walter Dean Myers
Crisis
Certain
Reading
" There have been two areas identified as being vital to reading - and that's for very young children between the ages of one month and five years and for teenagers. I've been trying to find ways of approaching both groups. "
Walter Dean Myers
Children
Trying
Young
" I admired the work ethic of the cowboys I read about. The idea of these young people taking on this much responsibility was impressive. I would like modern readers to have an appreciation of this. "
Walter Dean Myers
Like
Appreciation
Work
" I talk to myself out loud at times, and feel embarrassed when people overhear me. "
Walter Dean Myers
Loud
Me
Myself
" My younger brother's death in Vietnam was both sobering and cause for reflection. In 'Fallen Angels' I wanted to dispel the notion of war as either romantic or simplistically heroic. "
Walter Dean Myers
War
Angels
Death
" And I see the - you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can't read now. And I know that when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they're not going to be able to make it in our society. "
Walter Dean Myers
See
People
Now
" I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy. "
Walter Dean Myers
Parents
Children
Happy
" After so many books and so many years of writing, I have a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses. I love the process of writing and, if I allowed myself, I would write far too much every day. One weakness which I've struggled to overcome is my tendency to having my characters ruminate for pages. "
Walter Dean Myers
Love
Good
Day
" I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall. I do time lines for each major character and a time line for the entire novel: What is going on in the world as my characters struggle with their problems? "
Walter Dean Myers
Book
Time
Struggle
" Growing up in Harlem, I had the chance to practice with a Negro League team. At fifteen, I was over six feet tall and a fair athlete, but my skills didn't come close to some of the players I saw. "
Walter Dean Myers
Feet
Growing Up
Practice
" I remember one time being told I could not play in a basketball game at the College of William and Mary because I was black, even though I was playing with a United States Army team. "
Walter Dean Myers
College
Army
Team
" I know what falling off the cliff means. I know from being considered a very bright kid to being considered like a moron and dropping out of school. "
Walter Dean Myers
Like
Bright
Falling
" I didn't even know for years that people ever even got paid for this, because they don't teach you that in school. They don't say Shakespeare got a check. "
Walter Dean Myers
Teach
You
School
" I write in a small office at home. "
Walter Dean Myers
I Write
Home
Office