Quote

The Tale of Despereaux came at the request of Luke, my friend's then-eight-year-old son, who asked, Write for me the story of an unlikely hero with exceptionally large ears.

Kate DiCamillo

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Kate DiCamillo
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 25
Novelist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Katrina Elizabeth DiCamillo
Writing
Hero
Request
Years
Asked
Unlikely
Friend
Tale
Came
Tales
Year
Eight
Story
Son
Write
Ears
Exceptionally
Stories
Large
Luke

More quotes by Kate DiCamillo

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Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. He admired his own defiance. And then, reader, he fainted.
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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It is our duty and our joy to communicate our hearts to each other. Words assist us in this task.
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I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.
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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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I am busier now than I ever imagined I would be, but I feel blessed in that I have found what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It's wonderful to tell stories and have people listen to them.
Kate DiCamillo
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Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.
Kate DiCamillo
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As far as books getting turned into movies, I fared very, very well.
Kate DiCamillo
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In my stories for children, I sometimes show a hard, harsh, dangerous world. I'm going to show you the way it is, but I'm going to also tell you that there's every reason to hope.
Kate DiCamillo
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For children: I'm writing a picture book about the Big Dipper and a novel about a cricket, a firefly and a vole. For grownups: I'm writing poems.
Kate DiCamillo
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Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.
Kate DiCamillo
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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
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I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea.
Kate DiCamillo
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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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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
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Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.
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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I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.
Kate DiCamillo
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How will the world change if we do not question it?
Kate DiCamillo
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I like to think of myself as a storyteller.
Kate DiCamillo