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

Kate DiCamillo

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Kate DiCamillo
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 25
Novelist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Katrina Elizabeth DiCamillo
Book
Guides
Well
Writers
Writing
Books
Every
Written
Use
Write
Light
Wells
Wilderness

More quotes by Kate DiCamillo

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... 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.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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When I get to a point in my book writing when I don't know what I'm going to do next, I'll come back look at underlined passages and see if the images I wrote still have a certain amount of resonance for me.
Kate DiCamillo
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Nobody ever learns anything.
Kate DiCamillo
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Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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Longing is not always a reciprocal thing.
Kate DiCamillo
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He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end, where the reader was assured that the knight and the fair maiden lived together happily ever after.
Kate DiCamillo
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There is nothing worse than war in the summetime.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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I always go to the Agriculture Building, where they make apple cider popsicles for a dollar.
Kate DiCamillo
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Mercy Watson is obsessed with toast. What was blocking me was the challenge of trying to understand what she loves, what motivates her. That was the missing piece. Toast became the physical symbol of Mercy's hopefully endearing greed and obsession. Without that element in place, it didn't make sense.
Kate DiCamillo
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Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.
Kate DiCamillo
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Fairy tales dont tell you that dragons are real, but that they can be defeated!
Kate DiCamillo
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I grew up in Florida, and I wanted to go home and I couldn't. I didn't have the money. The book [The Tiger Rising] was a way to go home.
Kate DiCamillo
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Take this squirrel, for instance. Ulysses. Do I believe he can type poetry? Sure, I do believe it. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo