Quotes from Natalie Babbitt

My mother was an artist, and I was fairly good at art as a child. I was always the best drawer in class, except in second grade when an artistic genius passed through our school!

I grew up wanting only to be an illustrator. I studied art at Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College.

my mother always found me out. Always. She's been dead for thirty-five years, but I have this feeling that even now she's watching.

Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.

Nothing seems interesting when it belongs to you, only when it doesn't.

Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short. You got to take what comes.

Don't fear death, fear the un-lived life

I write for children because I am interested in fantasy and the possibilities for experience of all kinds before the time of compromise. I believe that children are far more perceptive and wise than American books give them credit for being.

For some, time passes slowly. An hour can seem like an eternity. For others, there was never enough. For Jesse Tuck, it didn't exist.

I have a wonderful husband, and we have had a great life.

I was born and raised in Ohio. During my childhood, I spent most of my time drawing and reading fairy tales and myths.

My husband wrote the story for my first book, but then he didn't want to do that anymore. So if I was going to go on being an illustrator, I had to start writing the stories, too.

I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a book illustrator. I used to hurry home from school and draw.

The first two books that I did by myself were long stories in verse. I knew I could do that because I'd written a lot in verse. But, verse stories are hard to sell, so my editor encouraged me to try writing in prose.

I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact.

I have always loved astronomy, and being an astronomer once lurked in the back of my mind. But I was never good at algebra. In fact, I flunked it twice in high school.

Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frogs is part of it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thush, too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. Thats the way it's suppose to be. That's the way it is. If we didn't move it out ourself, it would stay here forever, trying to get loose, but stuck. That's what us Tucks are, Winnie. We ain't part of the wheel anymore.

You really have to love words if you're going to be a writer, because as a writer, you certainly spend a lot of time with words.

The ownership of land is an odd thing when you come to think of it. How deep, after all, can it go?

Outside, the night seemed poised on tiptoe, waiting, waiting, holding its breath for the storm.

Life always seems to have worries, even if you own a big and beautiful house on the best street in town.

What is your suggestion for someone who wants to start writing? Be a reader. It's the only real way to learn how to tell a story.

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn.

He wasn't crazy. How could he be? He was just -- amazing. But she was struck dumb. All she could do was stare at him.