Maureen Johnson Quotes

Tired, but not the kind of tired that sleep fixes.

Boo: “Go talk to her.” Callum: “About what?” Boo: “Anything.” Callum: “You want me to walk up to her and say, ‘Are you a ghost?'” Boo: “I do that.” Callum: “I love it when you get it wrong.

This pool is a triumph of imagination. That’s how you win at life, Gin. You have to imagine your way through. Never say something can’t be done. There’s always a solution, even if it’s weird.

I like you because you were mad. And you’re pretty. And pretty sane for a mad person.

Being an author means, almost by definition, that you make up characters and then complicate their lives. That’s it, really. You make up characters and give them problem after problem after problem.

You’d been petting a stuffed dog?’ she said ‘A dead one?’ ‘It was a really well stuffed dog’ I clarified. ‘I have seen some bad taxidermy. This was top-notch work. It would have fooled anyone.

It’s always easier to say good-bye when you know it’s just a prelude to hello.

‘Harry Potter’ achieved a very special act of actual magic: it made it completely acceptable for an adult to carry around, read and enjoy a children’s book.

Did I just kill someone?” “You can’t kill a dead person,” Callum said. “Makes no sense.

My rule is: the second you find yourself doing something you hate, quit doing it.

It’s always awkward when someone doesn’t realize you’re joking and devotes thought time to what you’ve said. Double that when the person is wearing tinfoil.

Writing is one of the few careers for which you essentially train yourself, the other two major ones being juggling and pickpocketing.

Hey! Jack the Wanker! Over here! I want your autograph!

I sleep better knowing that a naked cork-eater is not sneaking around at night, stealing my underwear.

The whole “weak in the knees” thing,which she always thought was just some idiotic expression back from the golden age of idiotic expressions,was real. -Suite Scarlett

She introduced herself to my parents with one of her mighty, bunny-crushing handshakes. (I’d never seen Claudia crush a bunny, to be fair, but that’s the approximate level of pressure.)

The funny thing about stop signs is that they’re also start signs.

I read two mysteries a day when I was a kid. All of Agatha Christie, all of ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ I’ve seen every single British detective show ever made.

Spicy food and I have a close relationship—an obsessive one, in fact. If it’s spicy, I want it. I want to sweat and shake and go half blind from the searing pain . . . which, now that I put it that way, seems really suggestive. But spicy stuff is addictive. That’s a known fact of science.

I’ve heard people on panels say, ‘You must have a Web site. You need to tweet. Repeat the title of your book constantly,’ and I just want to say, ‘Shut up. Everything you’re saying is wrong.’ People will know instantly if your only motivation for tweeting is to sell books.

Fear can’t hurt you,” she said. “When it washes over you, give it no power. It’s a snake with no venom. Remember that. That knowledge can save you.

Irony is the word I forget the meaning of immediately after I look it up, but I kind of feel like I live in a constant state of it.

You can never visit the same place twice. Each time, it’s a different story. By the very act of coming back, you wipe out what came before.