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As the new work fills my notebooks, I've come to realize that the characters in my stories were so real because I really did want to get close to people, I really did want to know them. It was just easier to do it on paper, one step removed.

Charles de Lint

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Charles de Lint
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: December 22
Musician
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Samuel M. Key
Work
Realize
Notebooks
Really
Easier
Notebook
People
Steps
Fills
Realizing
Removed
Stories
Characters
Character
Step
Come
Paper
Real
Close

More quotes by Charles de Lint

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Wondering’s healthy. Broadens the mind. Opens you up to all sorts of stray thoughts and possibilities.
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... he had understood, better than anyone ... the beauty that grew out of the simple knowledge that everything, no matter how small or large it might be, was a perfect example of what it was.
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We end up stumbling our way through the forest, never seeing all the unexpected and wonderful possibilities and potentials because we're looking for the idea of a tree, instead of appreciating the actual trees in front of us.
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I believe in a different kind of magic. The kind we make between each other.
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[She] had felt straight away that she wasn’t meeting a new friend, but recognizing an old one.
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You wouldn't want any creative process to lose its sense of fun and adventure, but that doesn't mean you can't take it seriously as well.
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Even, she thought, even without the gift of witchsight, there was more beauty to be found in the world than could ever be snared in language or music. And with the sight.
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Writing music uses a whole different process that involves a lot of noodling and just seeing what comes.
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Not everything has to mean something. Some things just are.
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We call them faerie. We don't believe in them. Our loss.
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Most times we only see things for the way we are. But we're good at lying to ourselves. Sometimes we need somebody who's not living in our skin to point out how things really are.
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I don't actually talk about my books much, because I find if I talk about them I don't want to write them anymore. I write to find out what happens. You know how you read a book? That's what I'm doing except I'm just doing it a lot slower because it takes a lot longer to do.
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It's all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.
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The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.
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I always feel that there is a curtain, you know, that if I could just peek behind the curtain I'd see how the world really works. And since I haven't had it I have to write about it instead.
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Inside us lies every possibility that is available to a sentient being. Every darkness, every light. It is the choices we make that decide who or what we will be.
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I find the characters in my head and the more I write about them, the better I get to know them.
Charles de Lint
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The thing with pretending you're in a good mood is that sometimes you can actually trick yourself into feeling better.
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You know how we'd get along better? If everybody'd just remember how we're all related. White, black, Asian, skin. No difference. All the bloodlines go back to that one old mama in Africa.
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There's more to life than just surviving . . . but . . . sometimes just surviving is all you get
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