When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!
Judy BlumeRead
I am not sure that the inner world of teenage girls has changed. What's most important to kids today is still the same stuff.
Interpretation
The inner experiences and concerns of teenage girls remain constant despite changing times.
Judy Blume reflects on the enduring nature of the emotional and social challenges faced by teenage girls. She suggests that even as the external world evolves, the fundamental issues that occupy the minds and hearts of young girls—such as self-identity, friendship, and societal expectations—remain rooted in timeless themes, highlighting the shared experiences across generations.
In practice
In a discussion about adolescence, I would use this quote to emphasize the timeless issues faced by young girls.
When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!
What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.
What can happen if a young reader picks up a book he/she isn't yet ready for? Questions, maybe. Usually, that child puts down the book and says, 'Boring.' Or, 'I'm not ready for this.' Kids are really good at knowing what they can handle.
Concentrate on how good if feels to be alive. No matter what. Just to see the color of the sky, just to smell the air, and feel the wind in your face
I wrote 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' right out of my own experiences and my own feelings when I was in sixth grade.
Nobody ever asks me why my characters don't text each other. Besides, as soon as you put something 'electronic' in a book, it's already out of date by the time it's published: everything will have changed. Human emotion, on the other hand, will never change.
Why can't black women on stage tell stories that can affect white men in the audience?
In order to raise money from somebody, you have to understand who is this person, not to deceive them but to understand them. What would be their motives for contributing money? Why do these people contribute money to some places, but not to others? That's attunement - treating everybody well, but not treating everybody the same.
A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.
...Grandpa's mind had left us, gone wild and wary. When I walked with him I could feel how strange it was. His thoughts swam between us, hidden under rocks, disappearing in weeds, and I was fishing for them, dangling my own words like baits and lures.
We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.' What is that, grandmother?' To understand other people.' Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see.
I've met the most interesting people while flying or on a boat. These methods of travel seem to attract the kind of people I want to be with.
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