Quotes from Richard Peck

I caught a glimpse of happiness, and saw it was a bird on a branch, fixing to take wing.

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready

Stay away from people who don't know who they are but want you to be just like them. People who'll want to label you. People who'll try to write their fears on your face.

Nobody but a reader becomes a writer.

they'd just tell you to turn the other cheek, wouldn't they?...Trouble is, Mrs. Dowdel observed, after you've turned the other cheek four times, you run out of cheeks.

I read because one life isn't enough.

At last she said, "Them Burdicks isn't worth the powder and shot to blow them up. They're like a pack of hound dogs. They'll chase livestock, suck eggs, and lick the skillet. And steal? They'd steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke.

She had eyes in the back of her heart.

Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.

The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.

I read because one life isn't enough and in the pages of a book, I can be anybody.

I read.. because one life is not enough

But put two librarians' heads together, and mountains move.

Never trust an ugly woman. She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma who was no oil painting herself.

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple.