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At Least Lester Had The Decency To Weep At His Act Of Perfidy. Reader, Do You Know What 'perfidy' Means? I Have A Feeling You Do, Based On The Scene That Unfolded Here. But You Should Look Up The Word In Your Dictionary, Just To Be Sure.

-Kate DiCamillo

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At Least Lester Had

Kate DiCamillo

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At Least Lester Had The Decency To Weep At His Act Of Perfidy. Reader, Do You Know What 'perfidy' Means? I Have A Feeling You Do, Based On The Scene That Unfolded Here. But You Should Look Up The Word In Your Dictionary, Just To Be Sure.

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More From Kate DiCamillo

Nobody Ever Learns Anything.

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.

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.

Rats Have A Sense Of Humor. Rats, In Fact Think The World Is Very Funny. And They Are Right, Dear Reader. They Are Right.

If There Is Anything That I Think I Might Use Later, I Underline It.

It's Hard Not To Immediately Fall In Love Witha Dog Who Has A Good Sense Of Humor.

Falling In Love

Farewell” Is Not The Word That You Would Like To Hear From Your Mother As You Are Being Led To The Dungeon By 2 Oversize Mice In Black Hoods. Words That You Would Like To Hear Are “take Me Instead, I Will Go To The Dungeon In My Sons Place.” There Is A Great Deal Of Comfort In Those Words.

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.

Like Most Hearts, It Was Complicated, Shaded With Dark And Dappled With Light.

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."

There Are So Many Difficult Things And Stories Can Make Them Palatable. That's The Way I Have Always Felt.

Once There Was A Princess Who Was Very Beautiful. She Shone Bright As The Stars On A Moonless Night. But What Difference Did It Make That She Was Beautiful? None. No Difference." Why Did It Make No Difference?" Asked Abilene. Because," Said Pellegrina, "she Was A Princess Who Loved No One And Cared Nothing For Love, Even Though There Were Many Who Loved Her.

As A Kid Books Changed How I Looked At The World And Helped Me Understand Things. Books Still Deepen Me And Open My Heart.

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.

On The Return Flight From My Mother In Florida , I Sat Next To A Businessman Who Asked Me What I Did For A Living. I Said, "i Write," And It Seemed Totally Ridiculous In The Face Of What Had Just Happened. I Mean, I Couldn't Think Of Anything More Pointless Than Telling Stories. He Asked, "what Do You Write?" I Said, "i Write Children Books."

No One Cared What She Wanted. No One Had Ever Cared. And Perhaps, Worst Of All, No One Ever Would Care.

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.

So, Yes, At Least From My End. You Could Say There's A Lot Of Alison [mcghee] In Gollie Too.

Everything, As You Well Know . . . Cannot Always Be Sweetness And Light.

We Must Ask Ourselves These Questions As Often As We Dare. How Will The World Change If We Do Not Question It?

The Image I Had Was Very Clear, And So In That Way The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane Began Like Other Books.

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.

When You Are A King, You May Make As Many Ridiculous Laws As You Like. That Is What Being A King Is All About.

At Least Lester Had The Decency To Weep At His Act Of Perfidy. Reader, Do You Know What 'perfidy' Means? I Have A Feeling You Do, Based On The Scene That Unfolded Here. But You Should Look Up The Word In Your Dictionary, Just To Be Sure.

I Think We Sent Tony Fucile Pictures Of Ourselves, Photos From Like When We Were Seven Years Old. That's What He Worked From. He Captured Exactly What We Looked Like. I'd Love To Do Another One With Alison, Not Just For The Joy Of Writing, But Also For The Joy Of Watching Tony Bring It To Life With His Illustrations. I'm Hoping At Bea, Or Ala, I'll Get To Meet Tony And Shake His Hand And Thank Him.

If I Am Just Home And Writing, I Become Very Strange.

I Think For Everybody Reading Can Be A Solace, Illumination, Education.

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.

My Favorite Six Letter Word Is Always Because It Promises So Much. My Favorite Five Letter Word Is Never Because It Insists On Contradicting The Promise. My Favorite Four Letter Word Is Once Because It Says It Happened Then. My Favorite Three Letter Word Is Yes Because I’m Just Now Learning To Say It To My Heart. My Favorite Two Letter Word Is If Because It Makes All Things Possible Like This: If Not Always If Not Never Then Once. Yes.

The Origin Of Each Story Is Unique.

There's A Notion Of Art In This Country That You Have To Be Nutty Or Special Or "called" In Order To Be An Artist. I Believe The Questions Everyone Should Ask Themselves Are, "do You Want To Do It? Are You Willing To Do It Poorly? Are You Willing To Do The Work Of Doing It? Are You Willing To Persist When Everybody Tells You It's Silly?" If You're Willing To Do That, Then You Can Do It.

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.

Each New Friendship Can Make You A New Person, Because It Opens Up New Doors Inside Of You.

I Hate To Cook And Love To Eat.

Reader, Do You Think It Is A Terrible Thing To Hope When There Is Really No Reason To Hope At All? Or Is It (as The Soldier Said About Happiness) Something That You Might Just As Well Do, Since,in The End, It Really Makes No Difference To Anyone But You?

It Is Truly Excellent To Have Someone Believe In You And Your Ability To Write. But I Think It Is Just As Helpful To Have People Who Don't Believe In You, People Who Mock You, People Who Doubt You, People Who Enrage You. Fortunately, There Is Never A Shortage Of This Type Of Person In The World ... Write For Yourself. Write For The Story. And Write, Also, For All Of The People Who Doubt You. Write For All Those People Who Are Not Brave Enough To Do This Grand And Wondrous Thing Themselves. Let Them Motivate You.

All Of That Loneliness And Longing In My Heart Got Transferred Into The Book Because Of Winn-dixie, I Guess.

We Forget That The Simple Gesture Of Putting A Book In Someone's Hands Can Change A Life. I Want To Remind You That It Can. I Want To Thank You Because It Did. - 2010 Indies Choice Award

Reader, You May Ask This Queston. In Fact, You Must Ask This Question. Is It Ridiculous For A Very Small, Sickly, Big-eared Mouse To Fall In Love With A Beautiful Princess Named Pea? The Answer Is... Yes. Of Course It's Ridiculous. Love Is Ridiculous. But Love Is Also Wonderful. And Powerful.

Falling In Love

But, Reader, There Is No Comfort In The Word "farewell," Even If You Say It In French. "farewell" Is A Word That,in Any Language, Is Full Of Sorrow. It Is A Word That Promises Absolutely Nothing.

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.

When I Journal, I Write About Images That I've Seen That I Think Might Make Good Stories. I Write About Things That I Hear That I Think I Can Turn Into A Story. I Write About The Story That I'm Working On And Where I Think It Might Go.

I Like Going To Schools And Telling Classes That When I Was A Child, I Failed Every "will This Kid Become A Writer" Test.

The Sound Of The King's Music Made Despereaux's Soul Grow Large And Light Inside Of Him.

I Think Of Myself As An Enormously Lucky Person.

I Don't Think About Being A Celebrity.

Go Home And Read To Your Adult. We Forget How Much We Love To Be Read To.

Minnesota Has Been So Good To Me And So Pleased That I Love Minnesota.

The Shapes Arranged Themselves Into Words, And The Words Spelled Out A Delicious And Wonderful Phrase: Once Upon A Time.

Once Upon A Time

What Was It Like...to Have Someone Who Knew You Would Always Return And Who Welcomed You With Open Arms?

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.

I Have A Bachelor Of Arts In English, Which Means I Had A Lot Of Formal Training In Reading.

It Is Our Duty And Our Joy To Communicate Our Hearts To Each Other. Words Assist Us In This Task.

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.

There's Nothing More Fabulous Than An Adult Saying To You, "i Think That You Might Like This One [book]." So I'm Grateful Every Time That Happens. It's An Amazing Thing That People Care That Passionately.

But Still, Here Are The Words Despereaux Tilling Spoke To His Father. He Said, "i Forgive You, Pa!" And He Said Those Words Because He Sensed That It Was The Only Way To Save His Heart, To Stop It From Breaking In Two. Despereaux, Reader, Spoke Those Words To Save Himself.

There," She Said. She Rocked Him Back And Forth. "there, You Foolish, Beautiful Boy Who Wants To Change The World. There, There. And Who Could Keep From Loving You? Who Could Keep From Loving A Boy So Brave And True?

I Think That That's Part Of How People Have Responded To The Tiger Rising. It's What I Call My Dark Child. It's Gotten Sandwiched In Between Two Overachieving, Tap-dance-performing Kids - Winn-dixie And Despereaux.

There Is A Lot Of Love In Him, A Lot Of Love In His Heart...and He Is Up There With No One And Nothing To Love. It Is A Bad Thing To Have Love And No Where To Put It.

My Goal Is Two Pages A Day, Five Days A Week. I Never Want To Write, But I'm Always Glad That I Have Done It. After I Write, I Go To Work At The Bookstore.

Allow Me To Congratulate You On Your Very Astute Powers Of Observation.

What Would Make Me Happiest Is If Kids Read These Books [bink & Gollie] And Think: There Is So Much To Love In The World; And Words Are So Much Fun.

I Always Wanted To Be A Character, When I Worked At Disney, But I Wasn't Short Enough For Certain Characters And I Wasn't Tall Enough For Others. I Wanted To Be A Chipmunk; I Think 4'10" Was The Cutoff.

I Read Whatever The Publisher Sends Me.

My Father Leaving The Family Shaped Who I Was And How I Looked At The World. By The Same Token, My Father Telling Me Fairy Tales That He Had Made Up Shaped Me Profoundly, Too.

If You Have No Intention Of Loving Or Being Loved, The Whole Journey Is Pointless.

I Remember Wanting To Write A Book With Someone, The Someone Being Kate [dicamillo], And We Decided To Write About Two Friends. We Had No Idea How To Begin This Project - Neither Of Us Had Ever Collaborated With Another Writer - And I'm Pretty Sure That We Began By Giving Our Two Friends A Sock, Just To See What They'd Do With It. And It Went From There.

Mr. And Mrs. Mr. And Mrs. Watson Love Mercy [watson]. Eugenia Hates Mercy. Baby Likes Mercy. Mercy Loves Toast. And The Plot, If You Want To Be So Generous As To Call It A Plot, Turns On Those Elements. Love Mercy. Eugenia Hates Mercy. Baby Likes Mercy. Mercy Loves Toast. And The Plot, If You Want To Be So Generous As To Call It A Plot, Turns On Those Elements.

Miracles And Magic Pervade The Things That I've Written, But Yet There Are No Miracles And There Is No Magic.

During The Night, While Bull And Lucy Slept, Edward, With Ever-open Eyes, Stared Up At The Constellations. He Said Their Names, And Then He Said The Names Of The People Who Loved Him. He Started With Abilene, And Then Went On To Nellie And Lawrence And From There To Bull And Lucy, And Then He Ended Again With Abilene: Abilene, Nellie, Lawrence, Bull, Lucy, Abilene. See? Edward Told Pellegrina. I Am Not Like The Princess. I Know About Love.

Wayne Wang, The Director Of Because Of Winn-dixie The Movie, Understood The Book And Transferred As Much Of The Feeling Of The Book Onto Film As Humanly Possible. I Think He Did A Fabulous Job. And Also I'm Thrilled Because The Movie Brings People To The Book - People That Wouldn't Know About The Book - And That's A Great Thing.

Understand, I Had Absolutely No Interest In Writing; I Wanted To Be A Writer.

It Is Always Just Telling A Story, Regardless Of The Age Of The Reader. Except, If I'm Writing Something For Kids, I Know There Has To Be Hope. I Don't Necessarily Feel That Responsibility For Adults, But I Emphatically Feel It For Children. That's The Only Difference. There's No Syntax Difference. There's No Semantics Difference. There's No Thematic Difference.

I'm Continually Astonished With Myself How Different People Bring Out Things In Me That I Never Knew I Had Inside Me. Each New Friendship Can Make You A New Person, Because It Opens Up New Doors Inside Of You.

I Think I'm Succinct To The Point Of Trying To Write The Two-word Novel. Editing My Work Almost Never Means Taking Anything Out But Rather Adding, Because I'm Always Stripping Down. I Tend To Under-write Rather Than Over-write.

Everything When I Was A Kid Was Illustrated.

The Draft That Finally Goes To My Editor Doesn't Get Into Her Hands Until I Have Read It Out Loud Innumerable Times - Sometimes Into A Tape Recorder - To Make Sure That It Sounds Right.

I Believe, Sometimes, That The Whole World Has An Aching Heart.

... Every Time You Look At The World And The People In It Closely, Lovingly, Imaginatively, It Changes You. The World, Under The Microscope Of Your Attention, Opens Up Like A Beautiful, Strange Flower And Gives Itself Back To You In Ways You Could Never Imagine.

He Was Weeping. Although 'weeping' Really Is To Small A Word For The Activity The Kind Had Undertaken. Tears Were Cascading From His Eyes. A Small Puddle Had Formed At His Feet. I Am Not Exaggerating. The King, It Seemed, Was Intent On Crying Himself A River.

Love Is In All Of The Books, And That's The Connective Tissue Between Them. There's A Lot Of Hope In Me; I Can Feel It. These Stories Are Balls Of Light For Me.

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.

I Read My Books Out Loud To Myself Because Of The Demands Of The Story And Demands Of Language.

Life Is Hard. Life Is Beautiful. Life Is Difficult. Life Is Wonderful.

I'm At The Mercy Of Whatever Character Comes Into My Head.

Mercy Watson Is A Pig. She Lives With Mr. And Mrs. Watson, Who Are Not Pigs. I Had That Basic Premise, But I Couldn't Make It Work. I Would Come Back To It, Try It, See That I Was Failing, And Put It Aside.

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.

It Is A Bad Thing To Have Love And Nowhere To Put It.

Nothing New Ever Happens In The Books. It's The Same Old Theme.

The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane Began With A Friend Giving Me A Rabbit Doll - Forgive Me, Edward, For Using That Word; He Doesn't Like "doll" - For Christmas. I Said, "oh, He's Lovely, What's His Name?" And She Said, "edward." And A Few Days After I Received The Rabbit, Who Was Dressed Very Handsomely In Edwardian Kind Of Clothes, I Saw Him Stripped Of His Finery And Face Down On The Bottom Of The Ocean Floor. Why? I Don't Know. But That's Where His Story Began In My Head.

How Will The World Change If We Do Not Question It?

There Is Nothing Worse Than War In The Summetime.

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.

Delicate Things

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.

I Think, Oh My God, Kids Are Reading, And They Care About A Book Enough To Come Over And Talk To Me About A Book That They Care About. If I Think About It As Being A Celebrity, It Would Freak Me Out. But I Just Think, Lucky Me, That I Get To Be A Part Of This Whole Thing.

You Must Be Filled With Expectancy. You Must Be Awash In Hope. You Must Wonder Who Will Love You, Whom You Will Love Next.

Holly Mcghee Said I Should Come To Dinner With Them. That First Dinner, I Said Something Pretty Smart-alecky, And Alison [mcghee] Laughed Really Hard At It. It Made Me Happy.

But Let's Not Speak Of What Might Have Been. Let Us Speak Instead Of What Is. You Are Whole.

Open Your Heart. Someone Will Come. Someone Will Come For You. But First You Must Open Your Heart. (old Doll)

[our First Dinner With Alison Mcghee] Was At Figlio's [in Minneapolis]. I Know Exactly What I Had, Because It Was So Good: Their Three-cheese Ravioli. But I Can't Remember What I Said To Alison That Night That Made Her Laugh So Hard. But She Got Me Right Away And I Got Her Right Away.

Everything I Write Comes From My Childhood In One Way Or Another. I Am Forever Drawing On The Sense Of Mystery And Wonder And Possibility That Pervaded That Time Of My Life.

They Were Always On The Move.but In Truth Said Bull We Are All Going Nowhere

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.

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.

Reader, You Must Know That An Interesting Fate (sometimes Involving Rats, Sometimes Not) Awaits Almost Everyone, Mouse Or Man, Who Does Not Conform.

I Feel Like I've Been Blessed. I See The World Through Stories.

I Have Done Quite A Few Signings At Bookstores, Libraries And Conferences. I Have Received Phone Calls And Letters From People Who Liked The Book.

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.

Never In His Life Had Edward Been Cradled Like A Baby. Abilene Had Not Done It. Nor Had Nellie. And Most Certainly, Bull Had Not. It Was A Singular Sensation To Be Held So Gently And Yet So Fiercely, To Be Stared Down At With So Much Love. Edward Felt The Whole Of His China Body Flood With Warmth. (page 128)

Stories Are Light. Light Is Precious In A World So Dark.

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.

It Is Important That You Say What You Mean To Say. Time Is Too Short. You Must Speak The Words That Matter.

Edward Knew What It Was Like To Say Over And Over Again The Names Of Those You Had Left Behind. He Knew What It Was Like To Miss Someone. And So He Listened. And In His Listening, His Heart Opened Wide And Then Wider Still. (page 103)

Missing Someone

Seasons Passed, Fall And Winter And Spring And Summer. Leaves Blew In Through The Open Door Of Lucius Clarke’s Shop, And Rain, And The Green Outrageous Hopeful Light Of Spring. People Came And Went, Grandmothers And Doll Collectors And Little Girls With Their Mothers. Edward Tulane Waited. The Seasons Turned Into Years. Edward Tulane Waited. He Repeated The Old Doll’s Words Over And Over Until They Wore A Smooth Groove Of Hope In His Brain: Someone Will Come; Someone Will Come For You.

Life Was So Short; So Many Beautiful Things Slipped Away.

Beautiful Things

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.

To Me The Book Is Like Having A Kid. I Have To Let It Go Out In The World, And Great Things Will Happen. Maybe They Won't, But It Has To Keep On Moving.

Despereaux Marveled At His Own Bravery. He Admired His Own Defiance. And Then, Reader, He Fainted.

Look At Me, He Said To Her. His Arms And Legs Jerked. Look At Me. You Got Your Wish. I Have Learned How To Love. And It’s A Terrible Thing. I’m Broken. My Heart Is Broken. Help Me. The Old Woman Turned And Hobbled Away. Come Back, Thought Edward. Fix Me

I Was Over At Alison's [mcghee], I Think We Were Playing Scrabble. I Remember We Were Both Complaining - Yeah, We Sound Like Whiners - About How Hard Writing Is, And How We Didn't Have A Story To Work On. Alison Said, 'why Don't We Work On Writing Something Together,' And I Said, 'eh, I Don't Know If I Could Work That Way.' She Said, 'well, Just Show Up Here And We'll See,' And I Said, 'well, What Would It Be About?' She Said, 'duh, It'd Be About A Tall Girl And A Short Girl.' So I Agreed To Come And Try It For A Day.

Have You, In Truth, Ever Seen Something So Heartbreakingly Lovely? What Are We To Make Of A World Where Stars Shine Bright In The Midst Of So Much Darkness And Gloom?

I Need To Write, And I Can't Write When I'm On The Road.

Alison [mcghee] And I Have Known Each Other Since The Summer Of 2001. One Evening We Were Sitting Around Talking About How We Wished We Had A Good Story To Work On. Alison Said: Why Don't We Work On A Story Together? I Said: A Story About What? And Alison Said: A Story About A Short Girl And A Tall Girl.

Mercy Watson Is Pure Fun For Me As A Writer, Because I Think Of Her As Kind Of Sorbet - A Palate Cleanser - Between Larger Works. It's Always A Relief To Come Back To Her.

Going Out And Not Only Meeting The Kids, But Meeting The Teachers And The Librarians And Seeing The World, Fills Me Up.

Reading Might Not Be The Way That The Child Engages With The World, But It Should Be Something That They All Learn How To Do, And That They Get To Have For Themselves, As Opposed To Somebody Telling Them What To Do And How To Do It.

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."

The Closest I Can Get To Describing What Happens Is That Voices Come To Me. I Feel Like I'm Accessing Something That Is Deeper And Richer Than Me.

It Seems To Be That Way With Most Things. No One To Do The Really Disagreeable Jobs Except Oneself.

Writing Is Seeing. It Is Paying Attention.

I Want To Remind People Of The Great And Profound Joy That Can Be Found In Stories, And That Stories Can Connect Us To Each Other, And That Reading Together Changes Everybody Involved.

I Journal For About Half An Hour, And By The Time That's Done, The Business Day On The East Coast Has Begun. The Phone Starts To Ring, And The Rest Of The Day Is Spent Dealing With The Business Of Writing. My Workday Is Done At About 3:00.

Stories Are Light. Light Is Precious In A World So Dark. Begin At The Beginning. Tell Gregory A Story. Make Some Light.

I Think Of Mercy Watson Like A Superball; There's A Bouncy Kind Of Optimism To Her Stories. She Allows Me To Play, And She Makes Me Laugh. Hopefully Readers Feel The Same Way.

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.

I Never Want To Be A Role Model.

This Is A Wonderful Joke To Play Upon A Prisoner, To Promise Forgiveness.

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.

[a Businessmen In Plane After 911] Asked Me, "what Are You Working On Now?" And I Said I Was Writing A Story About A Mouse Who Tries To Save A Princess. I Was Mortified. Here The World Is Falling Down Around Us, And I'm Trying To Tell The Story About A Mouse Who Saves A Princess. I Said "it Doesn't Matter At All Now."

You Can Always Trust A Dog That Likes Peanut Butter.

The Watsons Have Lost Sight Of The Fact That Mercy Watson Is A Pig, And They Love Her Truly, Madly, Deeply. They Live Next Door To Two Elderly Sisters, Eugenia Lincoln And Baby Lincoln. Eugenia Lincoln Is Horrified That A Pig Is Living In The House Next Door. Baby Lincoln Secretly Likes Mercy A Great Deal.

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.

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.

Once Upon A Time," He Said Out Loud To The Darkness. He Said These Words Because They Were The Best, The Most Powerful Words That He Knew And Just The Saying Of Them Comforted Him.

Once Upon A Time

There Is Nothing Sweeter In This Sad World Than The Sound Of Someone You Love Calling Your Name.

Magic Is Always Impossible.... It Begins With The Impossible And Ends With The Impossible And Is Impossible In Between. That Is Why It's Magic.

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.

And Hope Is Like Love...a Ridiculous, Wonderful, Powerful Thing.

I Am Just Always, Always Paying Attention - Waiting For The Words, Or Image, Or Name That Will Be The Beginning Of A Story.

There Are Hearts, Reader, That Never Mend Again Once They Are Broken. Or If They Do Mend, They Heal Themselves In A Crooked And Lopsided Way, As If Sewn Together By A Careless Craftsman.

You Are Down There Alone, The Stars Seemed To Say To Him. And We Are Up Here, In Our Constellations, Together.

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.

Mercy Watson Was A Character That Had Been In My Head For A Long Time.

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.

This Is The Great Thing About Writing For Kids. Adults Might Not Do Anything If They Recognized Me. But If They Do See Me, And They're With A Kid, They'll Tell The Kid Who I Am. They Think They Should Give That To The Kid. So Generally That Sends The Kid Over.

I'm Not Exactly Sure How Old The Girls Are [in Bink & Gollie], But I Can Pretty Much Guarantee That Their Parents Will Never Show Up. That Would Mess Up The Fun. I Do, However, Very Much Like Kate's Idea Of Having Tony [fucile] Draw Their Portraits.

Guarantees That

Fairy Tales Dont Tell You That Dragons Are Real, But That They Can Be Defeated!

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.

And So He Was Reading The Story As If It Were A Spell And The Words Of It, Spoken Aloud, Could Make Magic Happen.

I Have Been Loved, Edward Told The Stars. So? Said The Stars. What Difference Does That Make When You Are All Alone Now?

I Would Hesitate To Say The Characters [ In Bink & Gollie] Are Too Related To Either To Us [me And Alison Mcghee], But They Certainly Draw On Our Physical Traits And Personality Traits And Then Exaggerate Them To The Nth Degree.

It's A Weird Kind Of Disconnect That This Whole Story [he Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane] Grew Around A Real Doll Of Mine, And Here He Is, With His "edward" Expression On His Face. It's Kind Of Reality Bumping Into Fantasy.

You Are The Ever-expanding Universe To Me

Expanding Universe

Hands Down, The Biggest Thrill Is To Get A Letter From A Kid Saying, I Loved Your Book. Will You Write Me Another One?

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.

I Was A Kid Who Lived To Read. It Was The Primary Pleasure Of My Existence. It's Still One Of The Primary Pleasures Of My Existence. It's Where I Draw My Sustenance.

May God Strike Me Down With A Hammer On The Head Before I Write A Book With A Teach-y Goal!

My Favorite Food Is Deep-fried Ravioli. I Always Get That Every Year.

Love, As We Have Already Discussed, Is A Powerful, Wonderful, Ridiculous Thing, Capable Of Moving Mountains. And Spools Of Thread.

I Am Really An Introvert, And I Need That Time Alone For A Variety Of Reasons.

I Didn't Know Anything About Writing A Screenplay, But Somehow I Ended Up Rewriting A Screenplay.

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.

I Love Adventurous Travel. I Also Love Pancakes, And Making Pancakes For Other People. You Would Definitely Find Me In The Airy Treetop As Opposed To Below Ground.

What I Hope Is That The Book [bink & Gollie] Delights Children. What I Hope Is That They Laugh And Laugh And Laugh, Just As We Did When We Wrote Them.

The Way We Started Was, Alison [mcghee] Said, 'tall Girl, Short Girl.' We Had No Plans Beyond That.

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.

The Tale Of Despereaux Is The Story Of An Unlikely Hero, A Mouse, Who Falls In Love With A Princess And Then Must Save Her. It's A Triumph Of The Human Spirit, Via A Mouse.

Falling In Love

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.

Reading A Story Should Be A Fabulous, Wonderful Thing. The Most Important Thing That Parents Can Do For Kids Is To Read With Them And To Let Their Kids See Them Reading Books For Their Own Pleasure.

Reading Should Not Be Presented To Children As A Chore Or Duty. It Should Be Offered To Them As A Precious Gift.

In The Tale Of Despereaux, There Is A Lot Of Darkness, A Lot Of Despair. There's Also A Lot Of Light, Redemption, Hope. There's Forgiveness, There's Friendship, There's Love. But The World In All Of Its Potential Craziness Is Also There.

So Many Miracles Have Not Yet Happened.

I Don't Know What Alison [mcghee] Thinks, But I Very Strongly Doubt That We Will Ever See The Parents Of Bink Or Gollie. However, I Do Think It Would Be Fun To Make Tony Fucile Draw Portraits Of The Parental Units And Have Those Portraits Sitting On Bink's Mantel Or In Gollie's Kitchen. Glowering. A Little.

Longing Is Not Always A Reciprocal Thing.

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.

I Have Learned How To Love. And It's A Terrible Thing. I'm Broken. My Heart Is Broken. Help Me.

The Story Is Not A Pretty One. There Is Violence In It. And Cruelty. But Stories That Are Not Pretty Have A Certain Value, Too, I Suppose. Everything, As You Well Know (having Lived In This World Long Enough To Have Figured Out A Thing Or Two For Yourself), Cannont Always Be Sweetness And Light.

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.

There Are Those Hearts, Reader, That Never Mend Again Once They Are Broken. Or If They Do Mend, They Heal Themselves In A Crooked And Lopsided Way, As If Sewn Together By A Careless Craftsman. Such Was The Fate Of Chiaroscuro. His Heart Was Broken. Picking Up The Spoon And Placing It On His Head, Speaking Of Revenge, These Things Helped Him To Put His Heart Together Again. But It Was, Alas, Put Together Wrong.

That Is Surely The Truth, At Least For Now. But Perhaps You Have Not Noticed: The Truth Is Forever Changing.

As Far As Books Getting Turned Into Movies, I Fared Very, Very Well.

Things Are Not At All What They Seem To Be: Oh No, Not At All.

I Think Tony Fucile, Who Did The Illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], Is An Absolute Genius. I've Never Met Him.

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.

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.

Forgiveness, Reader, Is, I Think, Something Very Much Like Hope And Love - A Powerful, Wonderful Thing. And A Ridiculous Thing, Too.

There Is No Right Or Wrong Way To Tell A Story. You Have To Find Your Own Way. You Can Get Your Idea From Listening, Looking, Or Imagining. Stories Are Everywhere. All You Have To Do Is Pay Attention.

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.

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.

As Elmore Leonard Says, I Write To Find Out What Happens.

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