Quotes from Bruce Coville

I loved teaching. I used to teach fourth grade.

When I was a kid, I read books that made me laugh but also made me shiver in terror. I wanted to make books that made other people feel the same way.

My writing works best when I remember that bookish child who adored reading and gear the work toward him.

The first time I can remember thinking that I would like to be a writer came in sixth grade, when our teacher Mrs. Crandall gave us an extended period of time to write a long story. I loved doing it. I started working seriously at becoming a writer when I was seventeen.

Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.

Like most people, I was not able to start selling my stories right away. So I had many other jobs along the way to becoming a writer, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker. Eventually, I became an elementary teacher and worked with second and fourth graders.

I feel like a very lucky person. From the time I was young, I had a dream of becoming a writer. Now that dream has come true, and I am able to make my living doing something I really love.

In terms of age, I think I've covered about as wide a range as is possible, having written everything from picture books to early chapter books to middle grade novels to YA to one adult novel - and having been editor and lead writer for a magazine for retired people!

I grew up around the corner from my grandparents' dairy farm, which was three miles outside of a small town called Phoenix.

I looked far and wide For a heart to stay true, I found it at last When at last I found you. Though I may wander In paths far from you I'll always return To the heart that stays true.

It is a pity that Earth has lost its dragons, for they added immeasurably to the strangeness of our world. This, it seemed to me, was a good thing.

Odds of a worm migration coming this way—about a billion to one. Odds of Elspeth improving her behavior without help—about the same. Sleep well, young friends.

You need them both, Thatcher. Talent and discipline. One without the other is useless.

But it's often the case that our most intimate enemies are rooted in our own darkness.

For what kind of world is it that has no unicorns?

It is easy enough to reject a story because you do not like what it says, but wiser to examine it first, to see what can be learned from it.

Now that she had lived in two worlds, would she ever again be completely at home in either of them? Or would part of her always long for the other, no matter where she was?

Stop running. That wouldn't be good enough. I had to stop being afraid.

But lies have a life of their own and are harder to kill than either men or unicorns.

Chains...They bind us, whether we want them to or not. But a heart without chains would have nothing to hold it, might simply blow away.

You earthlings! You never know what you want. If you'd stop trying to hold on to everything, you'd be a lot happier.

In every separation lie the seeds of reunion, in every reunion the seeds of separation.

When the King is mad, it is an honor to be an exile.

Always before, people ready to enter space have been civilized in a way you humans have avoided altogether. We fear if the people of Earth are allowed into space in their uncivilized state, the results could be disastrous beyond anything you imagine. At the moment, we are considering a permanent quarantine on Earth. We don't mind you exploring your own solar system; there's not much there anyway. But we cannot allow you to carry this sickness, whatever it is, into the galaxy at large.