R.L. Stine Quotes

Many adults feel that every children's book has to teach them something ... My theory is a children's book ... can be just for fun.

— R.L. Stine

“You guys are just jealous because i'm a natural athlete and you can't cross the street without falling on your face. -(Bird) Doug”

— R.L. Stine

“The book the snowman was the best book I have ever read it had suspence durring the whole book it was AWSOME!!!”

— R.L. Stine

The kid moved, and Judith dropped her lunch tray on the table and took her seat. "Would you like to swap lunches?" she asked me. "Yours looks so much better than mine."
I was holding a mashed-up tunafish sand-wich. "This?" I asked, waving it. Half the tunafish fell out of the soggy bread.
"Yum!" Judith exclaimed. "Want my pizza, Sam? Here. Take it." She slid her tray in front of me. "You bring great lunches. I wish my mum packed lunches like yours."
I could see Cory staring at me , his eyes wide with disbelief.
I really couldn't believe it, either. All Judith wanted from the world was to be exactly like me!

— R.L. Stine

This was a normal town once, and we were normal people. Most of us worked at the plastics factory on the outskirts of town. Then one day there was an accident ... something escaped from the factory, a yellow gas. It floated over the town so fast that we didn't see it, didn't realize ... and then it was too late, and Dark Falls wasn't a normal town anymore.

— R.L. Stine

Zeke and I struggled to get to the dressing room so we could get changed. But we were mobbed by people who wanted to congratulate us and tell us how talented and terrific we were.

— R.L. Stine

“He's is a real dummy”

— R.L. Stine

“Did you know that Halloween started because long ago people believed that one day a year at the end of the fall harvest, the spirits would return to walk the earth? On that day, people wore masks so the spirits wouldn't recognize them.”

— R.L. Stine

Good dog,' she said, stoking his head. 'Good sweet dog.' That was one of the great things about dogs. They always loved you no matter what was going on.

— R.L. Stine

“Squatting over it, I pulled it open. My clothes were neatly folded at the top. Robb hadn't stolen anything.”

— R.L. Stine

“I gabbed Ivy's arm. "Look. Ivy. Something just moved - by that tombstone."
We both stared into the gray light.
"Oh, noooo," I moaned.
I watched, trembling in horror as someone climbed out of a grave.”

— R.L. Stine

“They had me on my back.
And then they all swarmed at once.
Bony hands pawed at me. The grunts and groans rang in my ears.
I screamed as their sharp fingers punctured my chest - and ripped it open.
I kept screaming as they lowered their ugly heads and began to feed.”

— R.L. Stine

There wouldn't be so many stories about vampires and zombies and other weird creatures if they didn't really exist.

— R.L. Stine

“All those decaying zombies eating people and tearing out their guts." She laughed. "Cool!”

— R.L. Stine

“I think it's broken," Greg said, holding on to the camera. "The photos just don't come out right. It's hard to explain."
"Maybe it's not the photos. Maybe it's the photographer," Shari teased.
"Maybe I'll take a photo of you getting a knuckle sandwich," Greg threatened. He raised the camera to his eye and pointed it at her.
"Snap that, and I'll take a picture of you eating the camera," Shari threatened playfully.”

— R.L. Stine

Tap-tap-tap is better than thump-thumpthump, Ivy said.

— R.L. Stine

“I feel happy to terrify kids.”

— R.L. Stine

“I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I would never miss any of the comic books. I had practically no hair when I was a kid!”

— R.L. Stine

“When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called 'Tales From The Crypt' and 'The Vault of Horror.' They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.”

— R.L. Stine

I'm obsessed with radio. It's a good start to Sunday morning.

— R.L. Stine

“After spending 22 years in Ohio, I love everything about New York.”

— R.L. Stine

“When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.”

— R.L. Stine

“I've never turned into a bee - I've never been chased by a mummy or met a ghost. But many of the ideas in my books are suggested by real life.”

— R.L. Stine

“I feel that good fantasy will always be in demand. I think children especially need literature that helps them escape from the real world, which is very scary to them right now.”

— R.L. Stine

It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

— R.L. Stine

“I've made myself laugh from some ideas - but I've never scared myself.”

— R.L. Stine

“I got the chance to do things that I dreamed of when I was a kid: I got to travel around the world; I had my own 'Goosebumps' attraction at Disney World; I've been on TV and had three TV series.”

— R.L. Stine

“I really wanted to be a cartoonist, and I was in 4th or 5th grade and I would bring my drawings in, and I'd look around, and everyone could draw better than me. Everyone. My drawings were just awful. So that's why I had to write.”

— R.L. Stine

“What was the truth about the camera? he wondered.
Does the camera show the future?
Or does it actually cause bad things to happen?”

— R.L. Stine

“Greg had been nearly out the door, on his way next door to Shari's birthday party, when the phone rang.
"Hi, Greg. Why aren't you on your way to my party?" Shari had asked when he'd run to pick up the receiver.
"Because I'm on the phone with you," Greg had replied dryly.”

— R.L. Stine

“Well ... maybe I can sneak out for a few minutes," Bird said, lowering his voice. And then Greg heard him shout to his mother: "It's no one, Ma! I'm talking to no one!"
Boy, that's quick thinking! Greg thought sarcastically. He's a worse liar than I am.
And then he heard Bird call to his mom: "I know I'm on the phone. But I'm not talking to anyone. It's only Greg."
Thanks a lot, pal, Greg thought.”

— R.L. Stine

“You won't be going home tonight - or ever," Trevor whispered. "You've seen too much.”

— R.L. Stine

“Grandpa Mo choked out. They ... they ... they are hungry. Very hungry.”

— R.L. Stine

“I set a goal for myself everyday when I write - 10 pages a day - and it's much harder because I'm too dumb to turn off my Twitter and everything so it's always on and it's a real distraction. It's a major distraction.”

— R.L. Stine

“I drive a lot in the summertime, but after that, I don't drive if there's snow predicted for anywhere in 500 miles.”

— R.L. Stine

“At least I can write.”

— R.L. Stine

“I guess I'm way too kind and generous, and a saint - if you can believe that!”

— R.L. Stine

“I do like a lot of things that a lot of adults would scoff at. 'SpongeBob SquarePants,' 'Looney Tunes.'”

— R.L. Stine

“Normally, I spend a week on the outline and take two weeks to write the book.”

— R.L. Stine

“Twitter is fun because it lets me stay in touch with all my original readers who grew up with my books. I love hearing from readers instantly on Twitter.”

— R.L. Stine

“People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.”

— R.L. Stine

“I have a cheat-sheet for each one of my characters about their personality, the way they look, etc. So there is no possible way that I could have writer's block.”

— R.L. Stine

“So many people in their 20s and 30s, on Twitter, say 'Please write something for us,' so I have to listen to them, they're my audience.”

— R.L. Stine

“I've lived in New York for 40 years. I came right after college.”

— R.L. Stine

“The only lesson is, you gotta keep at it.”

— R.L. Stine

“Well, I hate it when authors come into a school and they say to kids, 'Write from your heart, only write what you know, and write from your heart.' I hate that because it's useless. I've written over 300 books - not one was written from my heart. Not one. They were all written for an audience, they were all written to entertain a certain audience.”

— R.L. Stine

“When I was a kid my family was really poor and I remember one Halloween I wanted to dress up really scary and my parents came home with a duck costume. I wore that costume for years! I hated it.”

— R.L. Stine

“You have no control [over natural disaster]. That's what's scary about it. You're helpless. That feeling of helplessness is really scary.”

— R.L. Stine

Well, first you have to love writing. A lot of authors love having written. But I enjoy the actual writing. Beside that, I think the main reason I can be so prolific is the huge amount of planning I do before I start to write. I do a very complete, chapter-by-chapter outline of every book I write. When I sit down to write, I already know everything that's going to happen in the book. This means I've done all the important thinking, and I can relax and enjoy the writing. I could never write so many books if I didn't outline them first.

— R.L. Stine

People say, 'What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?' I say, they don't really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they're gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.

— R.L. Stine