Bette Greene
Bette Greene’s award-winning classic novels will be celebrating 40 years in print!
As an award-winning author, screenwriter and news reporter, Bette Greene is read worldwide in over 16 languages. Bette continues her legacy of writing and speaking for the victimized. Within the heartbeat of her storytelling and the realism of her prose lies Bette’s demand that her readers feel what she feels and sees what she sees, taking us beyond our differences.
As the 20th century’s youngest professional news reporter, Bette published her first news story at age eight. Bette Greene’s first book, “Summer of My German Soldier”, won the first “Golden Kite” award. This same novel outsold Prince Charles’ book in his own country.
Bette Greene holds the honor of being the only author included in “Writers of Holocaust Literature”, without having been a victim of the Holocaust.
As a 21st century master author, Bette Greene uses the social media platforms to reach out and touch her readers, Generation - X, Y and Z. According to critics, Bette Greene has given a voice to the voiceless, changing the course of young adults’ literature in America.
For nearly 40 years, Bette Greene’s books have been banned, censored and challenged. The theme of Bette Greene’s award-winning library is always the same - Bullying!
“Experiencing life through a book can help you learn without all the pain of going through the experiences first hand.”
“Look inside yourself and you'll find a world of things (a world of your own experiences)worth writing about.”
“I was hooked on writing. I mean, where else can you get paid for sticking your nose into somebody else's business?”
“That's when I saw—cleary saw—that there was more than one mountain in my life. Some could be seen and some couldn't be, but just the same, they were all out there. All out there waiting for me.”
“Longevity can't be the only test of love.”
“But will somebody please tell me what's a person to do when they're too afraid of life to live and too afraid of death to die?”
“It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period—days or weeks—without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.”
“Six years is plenty long enough to soothe the tearing anguish of...death, but maybe no amount of time is enough to soothe something that is no longer there. Something like an emptiness that can never be filled because it's only a bit of space carved out of air.”
“But don't go thinking that I'm critical of you, Anton, because really I'm not. Not a bit! It's just that you're not here. I'm alone and I'm frightened and you're not here. And you're not ever going to be here for me.”
“Why is it I'm always so quick to believe that people are thinking...believing the worst about me?”
“Maybe...in a way, this coffee reminds me of something. Maybe...maybe only a philosopher or a mad man would make this connection, but it's a little like life. I mean it's powerful going down and that doesn't even take into account the aftertaste, which really takes getting used to.”
“All I know is that growing up hurts too much. Growing down is what I'd really like to do. Be little enough again so it would be perfectly natural to be protected from the wind and the rain—and the world.”
“And taking care of somebody else made me feel good. Like discovering you're more than you thought you were. More even than you hoped to be. ”
“I wondered if a blessing is still a blessing if it lasts for only a little while.”
“A person's got to think, otherwise that person's no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he'd know he was making a thousand children laugh.”
“And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces—spaces you know can't ever be filled.”
“Keep in mind that life produces no maestros, only students of varying shades of ineptitude.”
“It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.”
“Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that.”
“Fun, like champagne bubbles, can't completely fill you up.”
“What do you know about sooner or later? Is a moment only a moment when you're in pain?”
“Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.”