Kate DiCamillo Quotations

Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

Everything I write comes from my childhood in one way or another. I am forever drawing on the sense of mystery and wonder and possibility that pervaded that time of my life.

I am busier now than I ever imagined I would be, but I feel blessed in that I have found what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It's wonderful to tell stories and have people listen to them.

It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. I think the best way for children to treasure reading is for them to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.

I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.

I am single and childless, but I have lots of friends and I am an aunt to three lovely children.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in English, which means I had a lot of formal training in reading.

My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it. After I write, I go to work at the bookstore.

Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?

I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.

I like to think of myself as a storyteller,

I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.

I'm at the mercy of whatever character comes into my head.

Understand, I had absolutely no interest in writing; I wanted to be a Writer.

I always write with music. It takes me a while to figure out the right piece of music for what I'm working on. Once I figure it out, that's the only thing I'll play.

I didn't start working on children's books until I got a job at a book warehouse on the children's floor. When I started reading some of the books, I was so impressed.

I work full-time in a used bookstore. I get up. I drink a cup of coffee. I think, The last thing I want to do is write. Then I go to the computer and write.

My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.

I hate to cook and love to eat.

Ideally, I'd like to work part time at the bookstore. That would give me more time to contend with all the office work of writing.

The story is about what happens when you share your heart with somebody else; it is also about the danger of keeping things locked up.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

It is truly excellent to have someone believe in you and your ability to write. But I think it is just as helpful to have people who don't believe in you, people who mock you, people who doubt you, people who enrage you. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of this type of person in the world ... write for yourself. Write for the story. And write, also, for all of the people who doubt you. Write for all those people who are not brave enough to do this grand and wondrous thing themselves. Let them motivate you.

My favorite food is deep-fried ravioli. I always get that every year.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

My favorite six letter word is always because it promises so much. My favorite five letter word is never because it insists on contradicting the promise. My favorite four letter word is once because it says it happened then. My favorite three letter word is yes because I’m just now learning to say it to my heart. My favorite two letter word is if because it makes all things possible like this: If not always If not never Then once. Yes.

... every time you look at the world and the people in it closely, lovingly, imaginatively, it changes you. The world, under the microscope of your attention, opens up like a beautiful, strange flower and gives itself back to you in ways you could never imagine.

I think we sent Tony Fucile pictures of ourselves, photos from like when we were seven years old. That's what he worked from. He captured exactly what we looked like. I'd love to do another one with Alison, not just for the joy of writing, but also for the joy of watching Tony bring it to life with his illustrations. I'm hoping at BEA, or ALA, I'll get to meet Tony and shake his hand and thank him.

It is our duty and our joy to communicate our hearts to each other. Words assist us in this task.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.

That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.

When I do it [writing] by myself, there's a lot more terror and uncertainty.

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.

You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.

One, we [with alison McGhee] laugh a lot - that was great. Two, I enjoy writing, but it's a lonely undertaking. To have someone in the room with me is an absolute delight and makes it seem less impossible. It became a kind of comforting, joyful process.

But let's not speak of what might have been. Let us speak instead of what is. You are whole.

Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.

Love!' said the princess. She stamped her foot. 'Why must everyone always speak of love?

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

She was working to remind herself of who she was. She was working to remember that somewhere in another place entirely she was known and loved.

We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us.

I always go to the Agriculture Building, where they make apple cider popsicles for a dollar.

It's hard not to immediately fall in love witha dog who has a good sense of humor.

There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.

It seems to be that way with most things. No one to do the really disagreeable jobs except oneself.

So, yes, at least from my end. You could say there's a lot of Alison [McGhee] in Gollie too.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.

But, reader, there is no comfort in the word "farewell," even if you say it in French. "Farewell" is a word that,in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.

Say it, reader. Say the word 'quest' out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.

I would hesitate to say the characters [ in Bink & Gollie] are too related to either to us [me and Alison McGhee], but they certainly draw on our physical traits and personality traits and then exaggerate them to the nth degree.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.

SEASONS PASSED, FALL AND WINTER and spring and summer. Leaves blew in through the open door of Lucius Clarke’s shop, and rain, and the green outrageous hopeful light of spring. People came and went, grandmothers and doll collectors and little girls with their mothers. Edward Tulane waited. The seasons turned into years. Edward Tulane waited. He repeated the old doll’s words over and over until they wore a smooth groove of hope in his brain: Someone will come; someone will come for you.

Her sister, Holly McGhee, is an agent, and she's my agent in New York. She's Alison's agent too. Even though Alison lives here in Minneapolis, I met Alison through Holly, when Holly came to Minneapolis to visit Alison.

No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.

You are down there alone, the stars seemed to say to him. And we are up here, in our constellations, together.

Holly McGhee said I should come to dinner with them. That first dinner, I said something pretty smart-alecky, and Alison [McGhee] laughed really hard at it. It made me happy.

Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.

Life was so short; so many beautiful things slipped away.

Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.

All of God's creatures have names, every last one of them. Of that I am sure: of that I have no doubt at all.

There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. You have to find your own way. You can get your idea from listening, looking, or imagining. Stories are everywhere. All you have to do is pay attention.

There are hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.

But still, here are the words Despereaux Tilling spoke to his father. He said, "I forgive you, Pa!" And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself.

There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.

The way we started was, Alison [McGhee] said, 'Tall girl, short girl.' We had no plans beyond that.

Have you, in truth, ever seen something so heartbreakingly lovely? What are we to make of a world where stars shine bright in the midst of so much darkness and gloom?

Farewell” is not the word that you would like to hear from your mother as you are being led to the dungeon by 2 oversize mice in black hoods. Words that you would like to hear are “Take me instead, I will go to the dungeon in my sons place.” There is a great deal of comfort in those words.

Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread.

It's a book [Bink & Gollie] about shortness and tallness, so I think it's appropriate to discuss the virtues of shortness.

At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux's feet.

I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.

Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. He admired his own defiance. And then, reader, he fainted.

I always wanted to be a character, when I worked at Disney, but I wasn't short enough for certain characters and I wasn't tall enough for others. I wanted to be a chipmunk; I think 4'10" was the cutoff.

Allow me to congratulate you on your very astute powers of observation.

How will the world change if we do not question it?

Longing is not always a reciprocal thing.

While we were working, we were writing about a tall girl and a short girl, which we thought was funny, because Alison's [McGhee] tall and I'm short.

[He] had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.

the story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light.

Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart. (Old Doll)

We [me and Alison McGhee] probably wouldn't have said that when we were writing the stories, but it is so apparent to me in the finished product. For me, looking at Bink, it's like looking at myself on the page in a way that I've never experienced with any other book that I've written.

Everything, as you well know . . . cannot always be sweetness and light.

Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.

This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.

The sound of the king's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him.

Reader, you may ask this queston. In fact, you must ask this question. Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse fall in love with a beautiful princess named Pea? The answer is.. Yes. Of course it's ridiculous. Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful.

Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since,in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?

Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.

Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.

I'm in trouble if they can't, because everyone's taller than me, and if that's true, that means I can't have any friends! Alison [McGhee] and I look very much like, I was going to say Bink and Gollie, but I meant Mutt and Jeff. We look ridiculous when we walk down the street together, because she's so tall and I'm so short. But yes, tall people and short people can, and should be, friends. I, personally, like being short. I think it makes things easier.

At least Lester had the decency to weep at his act of perfidy. Reader, do you know what 'perfidy' means? I have a feeling you do, based on the scene that unfolded here. But you should look up the word in your dictionary, just to be sure.

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.