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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
Story
Son
Write
Ears
Exceptionally
Stories
Large
Luke
Writing
Hero
Request
Years
Asked
Unlikely
Friend
Tale
Came
Tales
Year
Eight

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There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.
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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.
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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.
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All of that loneliness and longing in my heart got transferred into the book Because of Winn-Dixie, I guess.
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I'm grateful for every teacher or librarian who reads a book and says, This is exactly the book that so-and-so needs to read I'll get it in his hands. I'm amazed at the network of adults who make sure that kids get books.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?
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No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.
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Reading is my passion.
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Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.
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Going out and not only meeting the kids, but meeting the teachers and the librarians and seeing the world, fills me up.
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Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.
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You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.
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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.
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The words, I have a dog named Winn-Dixie, popped into my head in the voice of a small girl with a southern accent. I'd been writing long enough at that point to know not to ignore that kind of red flag. The next day, I put aside what I'd been working on, started with that one sentence, and followed it all the way to the end.
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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.
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Besides, who ever asked you what you wanted in this world, girl? The answer to that question, reader, as you well know, was absolutely no one.
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Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.
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