Jacqueline Woodson Quotes

“When there are many worlds you can choose the one you walk into each day.”

“How can I explain to anyone that stories are like air to me, I breathe them in and let them out over and over again.”

“I want to catch words one day. I want to hold them then blow gently, watch them float right out of my hands.”

“I work hard, he says, I treat people like I want to be treated. God sees this, God knows.”

“But on paper, things can live forever. On paper, a butterfly never dies.”

“Sometimes, I don’t know that words for things, how to write down the feeling of knowing that every dying person leaves something behind.”

“I believe in one day and someday and this perfect moment called Now.”

“Then I let the stories live inside my head, again and again until the real world fades back into cricket lullabies and my own dreams.”

“I do not know if these hands will become Malcolm’s—raised and fisted or Martin’s—open and asking or James’s—curled around a pen. I do not know if these hands will be Rosa’s or Ruby’s gently gloved and fiercely folded calmly in a lap, on a desk, around a book, ready to change the world . . .”

“Somewhere in my brain each laugh, tear and lullaby becomes memory.”

“The empty swing set reminds us of this-- that bad won’t be bad forever, and what is good can sometimes last a long, long time.”

“Maybe, I am thinking, there is something hidden like this, in all of us. A small gift from the universe waiting to be discovered.”

“Y’all know how much I love you? “Infinity and back again,” I say the way I’ve said it a million times. And then, daddy says to me, “go on and add a little bit more to that.”

“We all have the same dream, my grandmother says. To live equal in a country that’s supposed to be the land of the free. She lets out a long breath, deep remembering.”

“Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen.”