Quote

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

Kate DiCamillo

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Kate DiCamillo
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 25
Novelist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Katrina Elizabeth DiCamillo
Training
Reading
Means
Art
Bachelor
Mean
Bachelors
Formal
Arts
English

More quotes by Kate DiCamillo

Image
We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?
Kate DiCamillo
Image
Mercy Watson was a character that had been in my head for a long time.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I write two pages - that's all I write. It takes me about an hour. I've learned that's all I'm capable of and to push myself beyond that is foolhardy. It's a very delicate thing, and I will not abuse it. So I write two pages, then I get up from the computer.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
The closest I can get to describing what happens is that voices come to me. I feel like I'm accessing something that is deeper and richer than me.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
The origin of each story is unique.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
The themes in my books, like in life, are about grace and redemption and you never know when they're going to show up and what form they're going to be in. Stories emerge from keeping your heart open to the people that cross in front of you or the dogs or the mice, and their ability to open you up and enrich your life.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
A typical day for me is I get up at 6:00, the coffeemaker goes on automatically and the computer gets turned on. I pour a cup of coffee, listen to Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, and then I write.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
The funny thing is, when I've gone through the relentless editing process, my editor and I are amazed the Mercy Watson books still make us laugh. The same jokes that made us laugh the first time around still make us laugh in the 16th rendition.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
As far as books getting turned into movies, I fared very, very well.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I love words I love the way they sound. Once I've worked on everything else, the last drafts of my books come down to how they sound.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
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.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
When I was a kid I loved to read, but I didn't write and I didn't create imaginary worlds. So, if one student walks away thinking, She's obviously just an ordinary person, yet she gets to make her living doing what she wants to do. Maybe that applies to me, too, then I feel like my time has been well spent.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
When it is my editor telling me how to rewrite a story, I listen and do what she asks because I have learned that I get a better book in the end. I can't say I'm happy when I read that editorial letter. It is always a little painful and scary. But I have learned that - bit by bit - I can make the changes and do the work.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
There are so many difficult things and stories can make them palatable. That's the way I have always felt.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I don't know what Alison [McGhee] thinks, but I very strongly doubt that we will ever see the parents of Bink or Gollie. However, I do think it would be fun to make Tony Fucile draw portraits of the parental units and have those portraits sitting on Bink's mantel or in Gollie's kitchen. Glowering. A little.
Kate DiCamillo
Image
I was visiting my mother in Florida when the September 11, 2001 attacks happened. I was working on The Tale of Despereaux at that point. I had already gone into writing it with a great deal of trepidation and fear, and then this God-awful thing happens and it was really hard to even get back home to Minneapolis.
Kate DiCamillo