Quotes from Jane Yolen

Now you must close your eyes. Yes, that is it. Selinda, you, too. Good. Good. Bring in the dark that I may teach you to breathe. For it is breath that is behind words. And words that are the shapers of knowledge. And knowledge that is the base of understanding. And understanding, the link between sister and sister." And

Stories retold are stories remade.

We write not just to show off, not just to tell, or only to have written. We write to know ourselves.

War is our backyard, famine our feast. Most fear the wind of our wings and even, in their hurt, pray for life. Only a few, a very few, truly pray for death. But we answer all their prayers with the same coin.

Come, Ye Women Oh, come, ye women of the Isles, And listen to my song, For if ye be but thirteen years, Ye've not been women long. And if ye be threescore and ten, No longer women be, Or so say all the merry men Who count so cruel-ly. But women we be from our birth, And will be till we die. Our counte is made so differently To give the men that lie. Oh, come, ye women of the Isles, And listen to my song, For we be women all through life, Where life and love are long. THE

If we do not laugh, we will cry. Crying will only make us hotter and sweatier. We Jews like to joke about death because what you laugh at and make familiar can no longer frighten you. Besides, Chayaleh, what else is there to do?

Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow.

A man whose axe was missing suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his axe while he was digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child.

The only duty of the dreamer is to tell the truth about the dream.

Once Once, oh once, there was, was not, A girl, princess, mermaid, widow, witch, queen, wife, A boy, king, soldier, wizard, troll, giants, Magic Life. The tale turns, returns, confuses, confesses, And all the hardships, spells, and stresses, End well in happy laughter And we hope- ever after. Believe me, friend- because would I, A storyteller, ever lie?

Snow White Makes a Plea to the Witch Light a candle. Feed your scrawny cat. Polish your dark house. Buy a new hat. Write odes, darn socks. Repair your crumbling stoop. Put a smile on your face. Pour out that sour soup. Move away from the mines, Far out by the bay. And I beg you, please, Throw that mirror away.

A good story is [a] kind of irritant. You read it, then you cannot stop thinking about it. Eventually, your mind and heart encyst about it, and what occurs is a pearl of the soul.

Happily Ever After Imagine them all after the plotting, after the ball, after the spelling, hopping, sweeping, grumping, grousing, mopping, sleeping, from small glass shoe to nuisance pea, so ever after, all happily be- enchanted with magic from kingdoms to seas. Now close your eyes, and dream of these.

The priestess gave the line of girls a smile, but there was no warmth in that smile, only a formal lifting of the lips.

Not to know is bad, but not to wish to know is worse.

I contend that good children's stories are always about the Getting of Wisdom. That's another way of saying, Let your characters grow. Up. And good stories for adults are about the Holding of Wisdom. Another way of saying, Recognize you are grown up.

It is the last thing we learn, / listening to the creature world…

I think of death, not as a smokestack, but as an opening door.

Could it be that humans had an infinite capacity to make themselves at home in the direst of situations? Or did one just adjust expectations downward, so as to be able to get through each day?

As Mama once told me, "We called him Boy for the first two months of his life, but when his third-month birthday came around and we saw that sweet smile—especially when you were close to him, reaching out for him—we realized that he had chosen life. So we named him Chaim after your zaide, your grandfather, but also because 'chaim' in Hebrew means 'life.'" I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without my twin.

We're lucky we don't have to share. Lots of people have to—you told me so yourself." "Share?" Gittel had looked appalled. Chaim remembered the face she'd made at the time, adding, "Papa, we have so little, how could we possibly share?" He'd looked at her, shook his head. "Many people have far less, and that you must never forget.

Because though women lie when they have to and men lie all the time, the mirror always tells the truth.

Write, write, & write some more. Think of writing as a muscle that needs lots of exercise.

No one sees her of course. She doesn't exist unless you count bad dreams. Yet still she flies