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Rob Horton, the main character of The Tiger Rising, was a secondary character in an adult short story I wrote, and he wouldn't go away after I'd finished the short story. I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so I wrote to find out.

Kate DiCamillo

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Kate DiCamillo
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 25
Novelist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Katrina Elizabeth DiCamillo
Away
Finished
Stories
Adults
Secondary
Character
Figure
Tiger
Find
Figures
Tigers
Wanted
Couldn
Adult
Short
Rising
Wouldn
Main
Story
Wrote

More quotes by Kate DiCamillo

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What's my weirdest adventure? Yikes, there've been so very many. Perhaps the pig+vegetable+Taiwanese-army-guys boat ride to the island off the coast of Taiwan qualifies as the weirdest. Or at least the most seasick.
Kate DiCamillo
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If the world held magic powerful enough to make the elephant appear, then there must exist, too, magic in equal measure, magic powerful enough to undo what had been done.
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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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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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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[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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This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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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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Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?” “Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. She closed her eyes. “I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.
Kate DiCamillo
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It is a bad thing to have love and nowhere to put it.
Kate DiCamillo
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Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.
Kate DiCamillo
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But let's not speak of what might have been. Let us speak instead of what is. You are whole.
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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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
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The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.
Kate DiCamillo
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We all live in fear of getting blocked no matter what kind of art we're trying to do. It happens all the time, but I prefer to think of it as a bad day.
Kate DiCamillo
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There ain't no point in making soup unless others eat it. Soup needs another mouth to taste it, another heart to be warmed by it.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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Normally, Edward would have found intrusive, clingy behavior of this sort very annoying, but there was something about Sarah Ruth. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do more for her. (page 135)
Kate DiCamillo