Quote#Children
When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me…
Quote byL. Frank Baum · 1856–1919
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letters and essays, Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317.
English (original)
When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children.
— L. Frank Baum
More from L. Frank Baum
Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me.
I believe that dreams — day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing — are likely to lead to the betterment of the world.
It is a callous age; we have seen so many marvels that we are ashamed to marvel more; the seven wonders of the world have become seven thousand wonders.
Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.
I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.
As the years pass, and we look back on something which, at the time, seemed unbelievably discouraging and unfair, we come to realize that, after all, God was at all times on our side. The eventual outcome was, we discover, by far the best …