Patricia Polacco Quotes

What I loved the most about Oakland was that all of my neighbors came in as many colors, ideas, and religions as there are people on the planet. How lucky I was to know so many people that were so different and yet so much alike!

Genius is neither learned nor acquired. It is knowing without experience. It is risking without fear of failure. It is perception without touch. It is understanding without research. It is certainty without proof. It is ability without practice. It is invention without limitations. It is imagination without boundaries. It is creativity without constraints. It is ... extraordinary intelligence!

Show me an Irishman who can't tell a story - I don't think they exist.

I have been in more classrooms than any legislator will ever walk into in their lives, and I see wonderful, caring, dedicated teaching out there.

My family always encouraged my drawing ability. Kids in school who teased me about my reading would get out of their seats and stand behind my desk as I worked and go, 'Wow, you can really draw.' Later, I earned a degree in Fine Art and got a Ph.D. in Art History.

My stories deal with multicultural situations as well as multigenerational settings.

You were born with the power to change others. You change people by the way you treat them. That is what changes the human heart.

Stars are holes in the sky, they are the light of Heaven coming from the other side.

When you come from a family of storytellers, you're doomed. You just have to tell stories.

I don't care what color the parents are. I don't care if it's a giraffe and a fish living together. If they're raising children who believe they're honored and loved, that's all that's important.

My stories are fundamentally about the love of family.

Now, I've got to tell you: 'In Our Mothers House,' I don't think is for a kindergartner.

Be kind to one another. You may need each other when you are older.

I could walk into anyone's home one time and draw a three-dimensional architectural plan of the inside of their home from memory, but I could not add up a column of numbers.

I used to say to my bubbe, 'Bubbe, is this story true?' And she'd say, 'Of course it's true! But it may not have happened.' What my bubbe was saying is profound: All stories are true. The truth is the journey you take through it - did it make you laugh, cry, seek and want justice? Then it's true.

My appearances are almost theatrical performances. I bring items for the children to see, such as photographs and actual piece of meteorite, a family quilt, sometimes spectacles, sometimes clothing, so that they can understand what I write about is family stories based in fact.

Generally, what adults want to know is my background, why I write what I write, and very personal insights that some say are inspiring.

My parents were divorced when I was three, and both my father and mother moved back into the homes of their parents. I spent the school year with my mother, and the summers with my dad.

Until we learn to honor and respect what other people believe, I think we are doomed.

I came from a family of incredible storytellers, but I didn't start writing children's books until I was 41 years old.