Quotes from Kate DiCamillo

I didn't know at the time I was writing Because of Winn-Dixie where the story came from, but in retrospect I can see that it was a response to a terribly harsh winter here in Minnesota.

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

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.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

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.

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.

We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us.

To me, this is one of the great things about writing kids' books: the illustrations.

When you write for kids, people always ask you what lesson you mean to impart. I don't think adult writers get that question. I never mean to teach anybody a lesson, because I don't know anything myself.

I'm never impressed with myself!

Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

Love!' said the princess. She stamped her foot. 'Why must everyone always speak of love?

I hate to cook and love to eat.

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.

I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me.

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.

Progress is hard to measure in any creative endeavor, I think. It's often a matter of instinct, of feeling your way through what works and what doesn't.

If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.

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?

They were always on the move.But in truth said bull we are all going nowhere

Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too.

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.

Go home and read to your adult. We forget how much we love to be read to.