Literary Birthday – 10 May – Christopher Paul Curtis

Happy Birthday, Christopher Paul Curtis, born 10 May 1953.

Christopher Paul Curtis Quotes

Work at your craft, write daily, and follow your dreams because dreams do come true
There comes a time when you’re losing a fight that it just doesn’t make sense to keep on fighting. It’s not that you’re being a quitter, it’s just that you’ve got the sense to know when enough is enough.
In the right hands, words can move more bricks than the strongest team of mules.
As soon as I got into the library I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I got a whiff of the leather on all the old books, a smell that got real strong if you picked one of them up and stuck your nose real close to it when you turned the pages. Then there was the the smell of the cloth that covered the brand-new books, books that made a splitting sound when you opened them. Then I could sniff the the paper, that soft, powdery, drowsy smell that comes off the page in little puffs when you’re reading something or looking at some pictures, kind of hypnotising smell.
There’s a thin, blurry line between humour and tragedy.
Things aren’t ever what they seem to be when you first look at them. What’s important is that you keep your mind wide open and try to understand what’s going on from a lot of different angles.
I do think it is important to look at the writing as a job though and to commit to it like you’d have to commit to a regular nine-to-five.
You can tell you’re reading a really good book when you forget all about everything else and know you’ll die if you get to at least the end of the chapter.
I often tell young people that as a writer you are very powerful, that you can make absolutely anything happen.
I write because I love to. I’m very, very fortunate to have found something that I love doing that also earns my living. But to be honest, I’d write even if I weren’t being paid to.

Christopher Paul Curtis is an African-American writer of children’s books. He is best known for the Newbery Medal-winning Bud, Not Buddy and the critically acclaimed The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963.