Quotes from Sid Fleischman

The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever -- they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.

I remember as a child of eight being told by a young friend that I had killed Christ. That was news to me. It's a common experience for the Jewish young. Should later generations of Germans be burdened with the guilt arising from the profound inhumanity of their ancestors? Revenge may be sweet, but guilt is non-transferable. Still, hatreds survive with the persistence of cockroaches.

Joy was not the raw material of humor . . . The dark source was sorrow.

Words were a conjuration, and their charms had begun to bewitch him.

Jemmy dipped the quill in beet juice and continued scribbling. "I'll tell him you've got reserved seats in Hell." "Aye! That's the ticket!

What was he looking for, a prince in fine velvets and a crown cocked on his head? Was it clothes that made a prince, Jemmy wondered, just as rags made a street boy?

I am Prince Horace!" "And I'm the Grand Turnip of China!" cutwater snickered. "Dim-witted villains!" shouted the Prince. "I command you to turn us loose.

Glancing back over his shoulder seemed to be habit, for Touch had noticed him do it before, as if the man thought someone might be following him. "Stranger, what did you say your name was?" asked the blacksmith. "I didn't," answered the thief. In fact, he had, but he changed his name more often than his stockings, and now he couldn't remember what name he'd bestowed upon himself.

The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever -- they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.

Humor is the oxygen of children's literature. There's a lot of competition for children's time, but even kids who hate to read want to read a funny book.