Quotes from Beverly Cleary

Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.

I grew up before there were strict leash laws.

Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.

With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.

We didn't have television in those days, and many people didn't even have radios. My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening.

I was a librarian.

I know that when I was a children's librarian, that was about 1940, boys particularly asked where were the books about kids like us, and there weren't any at that time.