Bruce Coville Quotes

It is easy enough to reject a story because you do not like what it says, but wiser to examine it first, to see what can be learned from it.

"We stood at the top of the stairs and looked down. Neither of us moved. I had a feeling we were each waiting for the other to go first.
"Dark down there," said Chris after a while.
"Sure is," I said. I was squinting down the steps, trying to make something out.
"Person might get hurt, stumbling around."
"Sure could," I said.
"They ought to keep it better lit."
"Sure should," I said, getting ready to turn around and leave.
"Well, let's get on with it," said Chris. She started walking down the stairs.
I couldn't believe it! I thought she had been trying to talk herself out of going down there. The truth was, she had just been building up her courage.
Now I had to build up mine!"

my arms, around my legs, and suddenly the force field disappeared. I could move again! The only problem was, the instant I did, my clothes all fell off. The laser had sliced my shirt, my pants, my shoes and socks, even my underwear, into pieces — and had done it all without touching my skin. “Get me out of here!” I yelled. “Get me some clothes!” No answer. Did that mean there wasn’t anyone there? Just as well, I decided, since I didn’t have any clothes on. But how long were the aliens going to leave me here? Or was someone watching me even now — watching, but not speaking? That made sense, in a way. If the alien mission was to study earthlings, then probably they were doing that right now — especially since I was the only one they had. I decided if I was going to be the sample earthling, I was going to do my best not to act like an idiot. So I began to take deep breaths. I felt myself getting a little calmer. I mean, it wasn’t like no one had ever seen me naked before. I’ve been to the doctor. And next year I would be taking showers in gym class. Come to think of it, given my choice of getting stuck naked in front of a bunch of aliens, or in a seventh-grade gym class, I’d choose the aliens any day. At least they won’t flick your butt with a wet towel! Unfortunately, just as I was getting calm, my little chamber started to fill with gas. Was this a test, to see if I would panic? Were they going to knock me out and do some medical exams? Or were they going to kill me and dissect me? I held my breath until my lungs were

"Hey, Geekoid!" yelled Duncan Dougal, "Why do you read so much? Don't you know how to watch TV?"

The shadow of the past is longer than any of us can imagine,’ said Alma Leonetti softly. 'You cannot unweave the tapestry of time, Moonheart. Take any event, great or small, and you can trace the threads of cause back across century after century, threads that are woven from the smallest of happenings. In the same way, things that we do today, any one of them, may have implications and consequences a thousand years from now that we cannot yet begin to imagine.

Stop running. That wouldn't be good enough. I had to stop being afraid.

"We were having so much fun gossiping about the show that it was nearly half an hour before we got back to the subject of the microfilm. Actually, I was the one who got us on track again when I suddenly shouted, "July, 1935!" in a voice far too loud for the library.
Sam looked at me strangely.
"That's the date of the play," I said, blushing. "I just remembered it.

Luster, bring me home.

They are stupid and dangerous, and all the more dangerous because they are stupid.

Gadfangled girl things, always robbed me of my common sense.

Travel safe, travel well. May those who have gone before be always with you.

The real heroes are the librarians and teachers who at no small risk to themselves refuse to lie down and play dead for censors.

(L)ittle is debated with greater ferocity than the question of what the creator owes the creation. Some feel you must hover over it, guarding it every moment. Others believe the highest, hardest, and most important task is to let go. They say that just as the parent must at some point release the child to the world, the creator must release the creation. Otherwise you stop it in its tracks, strangle its growth. Then you become not only its creator, but its executioner.

But, really, why does anyone create? You feel a...a restlessness inside, a need to make something new, something no one has ever seen before. You want to add to the beauty and the richness of the world with a gift, an offering that is uniquely yours. It's an act of selfishness and generosity, all rolled into one.

"In the reference room I got the second, but not the last, major shock of my day. I mean, who would have thought it? Librarians are supposed to be little old ladies. OK, I'll admit a lot of them aren't little and a lot more aren't old. But how many of them are guys who look good enough to be models?
The Hunk stood up as we crossed to his desk. "Can I help you young ladies?" he asked.
"Yes," said Chris briskly. "We'd like to look — "
"At your eyes," I finished, without realizing I was speaking out loud.
Chris jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow."