People still try to sell books that way - as 'books can take you to foreign lands.' We've given children this idea that reading and books are a nice option, if you want that kind of thing. I hope we can get over that idea.

Next quotes

• Walter Dean Myers:

  After so many books and so many years of writing, I have a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses

• Walter Dean Myers:

  I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall

• Walter Dean Myers:

  There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities.

• Walter Dean Myers:

  We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wond

• Walter Dean Myers:

  We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.

• Walter Dean Myers:

  And I see the - you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who

• Walter Dean Myers:

  I couldn't speak well. I went to speech therapy for 10 years. And I was sort of frustrated in that

• Walter Dean Myers:

  I didn't even know for years that people ever even got paid for this, because they don't teach you

• Walter Dean Myers:

  I began going to juvenile prisons. And some of these kids face some very, very tough lives. How do

• Walter Dean Myers:

  I came to Harlem from West Virginia when I was three, after my mother died. My father, who was very