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The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

Kate DiCamillo

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Kate DiCamillo
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 25
Novelist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Katrina Elizabeth DiCamillo
Undoing
Almost
Difficult
Always

More quotes by Kate DiCamillo

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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
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There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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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
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If there is anything that I think I might use later, I underline it.
Kate DiCamillo
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Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart. (Old Doll)
Kate DiCamillo
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The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.
Kate DiCamillo
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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.
Kate DiCamillo
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[He] had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.
Kate DiCamillo
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In luggage claim at the Minneapolis airport, the guy came up to me and said, Maybe you're wrong, maybe stories do matter. I wrote that on a scrap of paper and put it above my desk. That was the thing that pushed me through to the end of telling Despereaux, that comment, Maybe they do...maybe stories matter.
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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Sometimes strange and wonderful things will pop into my head. And sometimes I will see something in the world that is the beginning of a story. I always have a notebook with me so that I can write down what I see and hear.
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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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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I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me.
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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The book [The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane] is about the fact that living in this world means that your heart is necessarily going to get broken. But the book also says that's okay. That's the only way to live a truly human life - with your heart getting broken - and eventually getting flooded with love.
Kate DiCamillo