Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Quotes

Wally closed his eyes. He couldn't imaging dragging Eddie anywhere. A tiger, maybe, but not Eddie Malloy.

No one looks up. No one pauses. No one even questions. Easy as falling off a log. I

plus a porch that runs along three sides of the house. I told Ma once the Howards had a room just for company, a room just for books, and a room just for plants, and she said that was three rooms too many. First time I ever saw any envy in my ma. David

Why is life so complicated ... ?' I asked.
'To keep us from being bored,' he said.

Good, because I don't understand anything at all.

If Jesus ever comes back to earth again, I'm thinking, he'll come as a dog, because there isn't anything as humble or patient or loving or loyal as the dog I have in my arms right now.

Pretending that Shiloh's a bear, tryin' to get in. The more they squeal, the more Shiloh wiggles about, tryin' to get his nose under the edge of the sheet, tail going ninety miles an hour. If that dog had wings, he'd fly, except his propeller would be on the wrong end.

For your information, Lester, there are at least five wonderful parts of the female body that can be viewed by the owner only with a hand mirror.

I used to think that when I grew up there wouldn't be so many rules. Back in elementary school there were rules about what entrance you used in the morning, what door you used going home, when you could talk in the library, how many paper towels you could use in the rest room, and how many drinks of water you could get during recess. And there was always somebody watching to make sure.
What I'm finding out about growing older is that there are just as many rules about lots of things, but there's nobody watching.

It's what they say to do when you're depressed, you know. Walk in someone else's shoes for a while, and your own won't feel so tight.

Between the 6th and 7th grade, something happens to your eyes. they water a lot. I think its so you can get all the watering out of the way before you begin wearing mascara.

Do we have a hand mirror?' I asked from the kitchen doorway.
'Never use one,' said Lester, examining the date on a carton of sour cream.
'Naturally, you're a male. What you see is what you've got,' I said resentfully.
'Huh?' said Lester.

Since no one really knows what or who God is, or whether God is at all, why can't God be hope?

Writing, for me, is the best occupation I can think of, and there is nothing in the world I would rather do.

Happiness is wanting what you have. Being happy with what you've got. Enjoying it, and making it all it could be.

But how did you know that it was Stacy?"
"There wasn't a green light flashing, that's for sure," he said. "Mostly, I felt I'd met a person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. That I didn't need to look any further.""
"But how can you be sure?" I persisted.
"You can't. There's not just one person in the world who's your type. There's a whole group with the same likes and dislikes. But you want to spend your whole life looking for all of them? You just feel that everything's right. You're at peace with yourself.

That's the unforgivable sin, you know."
"What is?"
"Refusing to forgive someone."
"Refusing to forgive someone is the unforgivable sin?" I asked incredulously.

Patrick and I were about as different as two people could possibly be. Nothing embarrasses Patrick very much, and everything embarrasses me. Just being alive embarrasses me.

You don't have to be part of a couple to be happy, you know.

The Three Cs, I told myself. When you're not Comfortable with it, it's not a Compliment, it's Creepy.

His face looked almost as gray as his suit, and the pouches beneath his eyes looked like little bags for holding all the sadness that his head couldn't hold.

We all have our own battles to fight, and sometimes we have to go it alone. I'm stronger than you think, you'd be surprised.

Funny how one lie leads to another and before you know it, your whole life can be a lie. I sit on the porch swing later, not even

You get a dog on your mind, it seems to fill up the whole space. Everything you do reminds you of that dog. When

Everything can change in an instant. Everything. And then there is only before and after.

It's all right to have secrets, ... as long as you don't have any secrets from yourself.

If it doesn't sweat, jiggle, or pant, it's not alive.

I hate that phrase: move on. Like no matter what happened or what you did, you just "move on," and that's supposed to make everything all right.

Saying hello to something new means saying good-bye to something old and loved.

I also know that you can lie not only by what you say but what you don't say.

Once I have the idea for a story. I start collecting all kinds of helpful information and storing it in three-ring notebooks. For example, I may see a picture of a man in a magazine and say, 'That's exactly what the father in my book looks like!' ... I save everything that will help
maps, articles, hand-jotted notes, bits of dialogue from conversations that I overhear.

An idea in the head is like a rock in the shoe; I just can't wait to get it out.

Happiness is wanting what you have.

Sexually active? Sexually active? Patrick and I hadn't even learned the fine points of kissing yet!
I marched on down. 'For your information,' I said from the doorway, as both Dad and Lester jerked to attention, 'I am about as sexually active as a bag of spinach, and if you want to keep me on the porch and not out in the park somewhere behind the bushes, you'll keep the stupid porch light off when I come home with a boy.

The first draft is just a skeleton-just bare bones. It's like the very first rehearsal of a play, where the director moves the actors around mechanically to get a feel of the action.

I sure wasn't going to ask Aunt Sally, because if she told me once that getting your period was like a moth becoming a butterfly, she'd probably say that sexual intercourse was like a deer getting antlers or something.