Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.
There can be a lot of longevity in the repetition of things being told again and again in a variety of ways.
All of that loneliness and longing in my heart got transferred into the book Because of Winn-Dixie, I guess.
That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.
Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart. (Old Doll)
Miracles and magic pervade the things that I've written, but yet there are no miracles and there is no magic.
All of God's creatures have names, every last one of them. Of that I am sure: of that I have no doubt at all.
You are down there alone, the stars seemed to say to him. And we are up here, in our constellations, together.
I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.
When you are a king, you may make as many ridiculous laws as you like. That is what being a king is all about.
We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?
[He] had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.
The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.
Most of my books begin with an image or a voice - one small thing - and I don't know what it is going to become.
From a cognitive standpoint, I'm very aware that you have no room for error in a picture book. Every word counts.
And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.
In a dark time, doors will sometimes magically open and let us step inside to the warmth and light of a community.
The image I had was very clear, and so in that way The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane began like other books.
There's still, even now, a part of me that can't believe that I got published. That part of me has never gone away.
A friend of mine said Winn-Dixie is the way that people want the world to be and Tiger Rising is the way that it is.
Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?
Going out and not only meeting the kids, but meeting the teachers and the librarians and seeing the world, fills me up.
Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.
The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?
Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.
I like going to schools and telling classes that when I was a child, I failed every "will this kid become a writer" test.
So much of writing is like walking down a dark hallway with your arms out in front of you. You bump into a lot of things.
It's a book [Bink & Gollie] about shortness and tallness, so I think it's appropriate to discuss the virtues of shortness.
You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.
As a kid books changed how I looked at the world and helped me understand things. Books still deepen me and open my heart.
I am just always, always paying attention - waiting for the words, or image, or name that will be the beginning of a story.
Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.
There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.
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.
Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread.
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.
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.
Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too.
Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.
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.
There's a Buddhist precept that the only thing you deserve is the chance to do the work, and I've been given the chance to do the work.
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.
Say it, reader. Say the word 'quest' out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.
This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.
It's a very powerful, emotional thing to read a book, and to reduce it to a series of questions in a test strips something away from the book.
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.
She was working to remind herself of who she was. She was working to remember that somewhere in another place entirely she was known and loved.
Writing at home and then going out into the world to talk about why books matter to me feeds the writing. It's a good mix. It provides balance.