Kate DiCamillo Quotes

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

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

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

Love is in all of the books, and that's the connective tissue between them. There's a lot of hope in me; I can feel it. These stories are balls of light for me.

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

May God strike me down with a hammer on the head before I write a book with a teach-y goal!

What I hope is that the book [Bink & Gollie] delights children. What I hope is that they laugh and laugh and laugh, just as we did when we wrote them.

I love adventurous travel. I also love pancakes, and making pancakes for other people. You would definitely find me in the airy treetop as opposed to below ground.

For children: I'm writing a picture book about the Big Dipper and a novel about a cricket, a firefly and a vole. For grownups: I'm writing poems.

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.

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

Anybody who puts a book into someone else's hands inspires me - teachers, librarians, booksellers, parents.

As Elmore Leonard says, I write to find out what happens.

The image I had was very clear, and so in that way The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane began like other books.

In my stories for children, I sometimes show a hard, harsh, dangerous world. I'm going to show you the way it is, but I'm going to also tell you that there's every reason to hope.

Mercy Watson is pure fun for me as a writer, because I think of her as kind of sorbet - a palate cleanser - between larger works. It's always a relief to come back to her.

I think of Mercy Watson like a superball; there's a bouncy kind of optimism to her stories. She allows me to play, and she makes me laugh. Hopefully readers feel the same way.

I didn't know at the time I was writing Because of Winn-Dixie where the story came from, but in retrospect I can see that it was a response to a terribly harsh winter here in Minnesota.

All of that loneliness and longing in my heart got transferred into the book Because of Winn-Dixie, I guess.

I'm predisposed to think that as a people, we're hardwired to understand things through the telling of stories. I think that as human beings it's part of who we are.

There's a Buddhist precept that the only thing you deserve is the chance to do the work, and I've been given the chance to do the work.

Nothingwould beeasier withoutyou, because youare everything, all of it-sprinkles, quarks, giantdonuts, eggs sunny-side up-youare the ever-expandinguniverseto me.

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

Oh, my goodness, ” said Louisiana. “I’m just all filled up with feathers and regrets. And fears. I have a lot of fears.

If you want to be a writer, write a little bit every day. Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.

Despereaux was reading the story out loud to himself. He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end...

Magic is always impossible. It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That's why it is magic.

I have been loved said Edward to the stars.

She said the words, and then she had a strange moment of seeing them, hanging there over her head. "You're going to vacuum up that squi

She liked the way the words sounded. She imagined them floating above her in a comic-strip bubble

She might be a natural-born cynic, but she knew the right word when she heard it.

The April sun, weak but determined, shone through a castle window and from there squeezed itself through a small hole in the wall and placed one golden finger on the little mouse.

And Rob knew then that he had picked the right person to tell.

There was something scary about watching adults sleep. It was as if no one at all were in charge of the world.

Listen, said Beverly. Let me tell you something. There is no Very Friendly Animal Center. That cat is long gone.

It is a horrible, terrible thing, the worst thing, to watch somebody you love die right in front of you and not be able to do nothing about it.

What is?', he said. 'What if?' is a question that belongs to magic.

But that is impossible, " said Peter."Magic is always impossible, " said the magician. "It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.

He felt a wonderful certainty. The impossible, he thought, the impossible is about to happen again.

Not much goes on in the mind of a squirrel.Huge portions of what is loosely termed "the squirrel brain" are given over to one thought:

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.

I love your round head, the brilliant green, the watching blue, these letters, this world, you.I am very, very hungry.

Stories are light.

He was agitated for some reason that he could not name. (page 35)

It occurred to her that nobody really knew what anybody else was upset about, and that seemed like a terrible thing.

But I'm not ready to let Winn-Dixie go.

He was a squirrel. Could he be a superhero, too?

He would write and write. He would make wonderful things happen. Some of it would be true. All of it would be true. Most of it would be true.

Desperaux, " she said. He saw his name on her lips."I honor you, " whispered Desperaux. "I honor you.

If the wishes came true, they came true in terrible ways. Wishes were dangerous things. That was the idea you got from fairy tales.