E.L. Konigsburg Quotes & Sayings

Jamie liked perspiration, a little bit of dirt, and complications. — E.L. Konigsburg

Jamie spied a Hershey's almond bar still in its wrapper lying in the corner of the landing. He picked it up and tore open one corner.

"Was it bitten into?" asked Claudia.
"No," Jamie smiled. "Want half?"
"You better not touch it," Claudia warned. "It's probably poisoned or filled with marijuana, so you'll eat it and become either dead or a dope addict".

Jamie was irritated. "Couldn't it just happen that someone dropped it?"

"I doubt that. Who would drop a whole candy bar and not know it? That's like leaving a statue in a taxi". — E.L. Konigsburg

Peter took a deep breath. 'Really, Mother! Anyone who blows pink bubble in front of a Picasso Blue painting should be arrested. — E.L. Konigsburg

Biding one's time is a very different thing from patience. — E.L. Konigsburg

Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don't talk about doing it. Do it. Finish. — E.L. Konigsburg

Mrs. Olinski was the first teacher Epiphany ever had who taught from a wheelchair. — E.L. Konigsburg

The storm in our private lives had picked him up and put him out of place. Me, too. I, too, had been picked up from one place and set down in another. I, too, had been stranded. We both needed help resettling. — E.L. Konigsburg

I was the first one in my family to go away to college. I came from a small town where there was no guidance in the high school at all. It was a mill town, and I never knew anyone who made their living from the arts. When you did go away to college, you went away to be something - an engineer, or a teacher, or a chemist. — E.L. Konigsburg

In some way, every creative action disturbs the universe. — E.L. Konigsburg

If you think of doing something in New York City, you can be certain that at least two thousand other people have the same thought. And of the two thousand who do, about one thousand will be standing in line waiting to do it. — E.L. Konigsburg

I think it's important to experience kindness so that you can experience it more in the future. I believe that patterns of emotional behavior are set down before adolescence. And I think that if you have not observed kindness, you will not recognize it. You have to experience kindness in order to be kind. — E.L. Konigsburg

Five minutes of planning are worth fifteen minutes of just looking. — E.L. Konigsburg

I prefer not to. — E.L. Konigsburg

...I didn't run away to come home the same. -Claudia — E.L. Konigsburg

Parke-Bernet Galleries. — E.L. Konigsburg

Had she been born 500 years sooner, Raphael would have chosen her as a model for his cherubs. Tendrils of bright red hair framed her face, a spray of freckles powdered her nose, and she was as plump as a perfectly ripened peach. Raphael probably would have painted out the freckles, and that would have been a mistake. Like brushing cinnamon off cinnamon toast. — E.L. Konigsburg

The eyes are the windows of the soul ... If someone was to look into your eyes, what would you want them to see? — E.L. Konigsburg

Jamie, when the stakes are high, I never cheat. I consider myself too important to do that. — E.L. Konigsburg

Readers let me know that they like books that have more to them than meets the eye. Had they not let me know that, I never would have written 'The View From Saturday.' — E.L. Konigsburg

Silence does for thinking what a suspension bridge does for space
it makes connections. — E.L. Konigsburg

Because way down deep they know that civilized people have to preserve rare birds. — E.L. Konigsburg

I think most of us are outsiders. And I think that's good because it makes you question things. — E.L. Konigsburg

Whenever someone makes out a guest list, the people not on it become officially uninvited, and that makes them the enemies of the invited. Guest lists are just a way of choosing sides. — E.L. Konigsburg

But no one was prouder of me or happier for me than Branwell, and I think he would not have been prouder or happier if he had won himself. And I don't know anyone anywhere who has a friend like that. — E.L. Konigsburg

Flattery is as important a machine as the lever, isn't it, Saxonberg? Give it a proper place to rest, and it can move the world. — E.L. Konigsburg

Branwell told a cruel lie in silence. — E.L. Konigsburg

The essential problems remain the same ... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both. — E.L. Konigsburg

Often the search proves more profitable than the goal. — E.L. Konigsburg

Ninety percent of who you are is invisible. - Mrs. Zender — E.L. Konigsburg

It is sometimes necessary to use unnecessary words like thank you and please just to make life prettier. — E.L. Konigsburg

How can you know what is missing if you've never met it? You must know of something's existence before you can notice its absence. — E.L. Konigsburg

She thanked me again and then said, 'Some people say 'God is in the details.' Others say it's the Devil.' Margaret replied, 'Maybe it depends on who's reporting the details. — E.L. Konigsburg

I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow. — E.L. Konigsburg

They called themselves The Souls. They told Ms. Olinski that they were The Souls before they were a team, but she told them that they were a team as soon as they became The Souls. Then after a while, teacher and team agreed that they were arguing chicken-or-egg. Whichever way it began
chicken-or-egg, team-or-The Souls
it definitely ended with an egg. Definitely, an egg. — E.L. Konigsburg

Good explanations are like bathing suits, darling; they are meant to reveal everything by covering only what is necessary. — E.L. Konigsburg

Jake knew that his mother had a tendency to mistake rules, her rules, for principles. She did not bend because she did not have enough confidence to know when or how far. She did not listen well because one ear was always otherwise engaged - either listening to what she herself had just said or what she would say next. — E.L. Konigsburg

Oh, well,' Mrs. Zender continued, 'Mother always said that Mr. Zender had other talents. He was good looking, and I think Mother put looking good right up there with the harpsichord, an instrument that has limited performance time and requires a great deal of maintenance. — E.L. Konigsburg

Even after more than five hundred years in Heaven, Eleanor of Aquitaine still missed quarreling and dressing up. Eleanor missed strong, sweet smells. Eleanor missed feeling hot and being cold. Eleanor missed Henry. She missed life. — E.L. Konigsburg

Sometimes we even have to risk making fools of ourselves. — E.L. Konigsburg

Tell how it is normal to be very comfortable on the outside but very uncomfortable on the inside. Tell how funny it all is. But tell a little something else, too. What can it hurt? Tell a little something else--about how you can be a nonconformist and about how you can be an outsider. And tell how you are entitled to a little privacy. But for goodness' sake, say all that very softly. — E.L. Konigsburg

Jamie, you know, you could go clear around the world and still come home wondering if the tuna fish sandwiches at Chock Full O'Nuts still cost thirty-five cents. — E.L. Konigsburg

Indecisiveness wears a person out. — E.L. Konigsburg

Since language is the only tool with which writers can reflect and shape a culture, it must be transformed into art. Language is not a limitation on the art of literature; it is a glorification. It has been the scaffolding inside which nations and philosophies have been built, and the language of literature has added the ornamental pediment by which the culture is remembered. — E.L. Konigsburg

Nathan, how can you stand playing the same piece over and over again?" And Grandpa Nate answered, "Why don't you ask me how I can stand making love to the same woman over and over again? — E.L. Konigsburg

Sixth graders had stopped asking "Now what?" and had started asking "So what?" She had not been sorry to retire when she did. — E.L. Konigsburg

Loved him beyond reason, but then, all love is beyond reason. — E.L. Konigsburg

Every now and then, a person must do something simply because he wants to, because it seems to him worth doing. And that does not make it worthless or a waste of time. — E.L. Konigsburg

There were times when the bad and the sad could have weighed me down. But to drink life from only the good is to taste only half of it. — E.L. Konigsburg

When I visit schools and talk to students about writing, I give them one word of advice and I give it to them quickly and loudly-FINISH! Starting something is easier than finishing it. You must have discipline to go from a few sentences, to a few paragraphs, to a piece of writing that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Finishing something bridges the difference between someone who has talent and one who does not. My best advice? Apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair-and finish. FINISH! — E.L. Konigsburg

Every job in the world has some built-in boredom. No man can stay excited about something every minute he is doing it. Routine is as necessary to life as water is to beer; it is the base that holds the flavors and spices together. — E.L. Konigsburg

Talk was like the vitamins of our friendship: Large daily doses kept it healthy. — E.L. Konigsburg

How dare he fall in love with his own wife! -Salai — E.L. Konigsburg

I don't think there is any feeling I like more than the one that someone is glad to see me.
- Connor Kane — E.L. Konigsburg

She was bored with simply being straight-A's Claudia Kincaid. She was tired of arguing about whose turn it was to choose the Sunday night seven-thirty television show, of injustice, and of the monotony of everything. — E.L. Konigsburg

I waited for her to catch up, and when I did, she slowed down, and I missed seeing the light in her hair. I never told Nadia how much I liked seeing the halo the sunlight made of her hair. Sometimes silence is a habit that hurts. — E.L. Konigsburg

Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness - self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creating your own options. — E.L. Konigsburg

Going to school- picking an apple Getting an education- eating it — E.L. Konigsburg

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her pack. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. — E.L. Konigsburg

I am convinced that not only do children need children's books to fine-tune their brains, but our civilization needs them if we are not going to unplug ourselves from our collective past. — E.L. Konigsburg

Jamie: The only kind of deal that I can make is with money, and we haven't got any of that.
Mrs. Frankweiler: You are very poor indeed if that is the only kind of deal you can make — E.L. Konigsburg

Can you know excellence if you've never seen it? Can you know good if you have seen only bad? — E.L. Konigsburg

He learned to read the ocean by a cupful. He also learned to regard each port of call as part of the journey and not as the destination. Every voyage begins when you do. — E.L. Konigsburg

But lying in bed just before going to sleep is the worst time for organized thinking; it is the best time for free thinking. Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze, taking first this direction and then that. — E.L. Konigsburg

By the time they get to 6th grade honor roll students won't risk making a mistake, and sometimes to be successful, you have to risk making mistakes. — E.L. Konigsburg

Before you can be anything, you have to be yourself. That's the hardest thing to find. — E.L. Konigsburg

The girl clones at Singer Grove were just like the ones in Texas; they knocked themselves out to be like everyone else and then bragged about how they were different. All their differences put into a pot and boiled down wouldn't spice baby food. By trying to brag about how different they were, they just really showed how alike they were, because all their differences were alike. — E.L. Konigsburg

I chose a brunette, a redhead, a blond, and a kid with hair as black as print on paper. — E.L. Konigsburg

We'll walk from here to the — E.L. Konigsburg

What happened was: they became a team, a family of two. There had been times before they ran away when they acted like a team, but those were very different from feeling like a team. Becoming a team didn't mean the end of their arguments. But it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure, became discussions not threats. To an outsider the arguments would appear to be the same because feeling like part of a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring. You could even call it love. And it is very rarely, indeed, that it happens to two people at the same time
especially a brother and a sister who had always spent more time with activities than they had with each other. — E.L. Konigsburg

It often takes more courage to be a passenger than a driver. — E.L. Konigsburg

Kids want acceptance from their peers, but in two different, opposing ways: They want to be like everyone else and they want to be different from everyone else. So the question is: How do you reconcile these opposing longings? — E.L. Konigsburg

Because after a time having a secret and nobody knowing you have a secret is no fun. And although you don't want others to know what the secret is, you want them to at least know you have one. — E.L. Konigsburg

I believe in courtesy. It is the way we avoid hurting people's feelings. She thought that maybe, just maybe, western civilization was in decline because people did not take time to take tea at four o'clock. — E.L. Konigsburg

I'm not sure that love and like aren't like cats and dogs: One can't grow up to be the other, but they can be taught to live under the same roof. — E.L. Konigsburg

Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way. — E.L. Konigsburg

I am truly anxious to get on with my life. — E.L. Konigsburg

Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around. — E.L. Konigsburg

Sometimes it takes more courage to be the passenger than to be the driver. — E.L. Konigsburg

For the novelist or poet, for the scientist or artist, the question is not where do ideas come from, the question is how they come. The how is the mystery. The how is fragile. — E.L. Konigsburg

I was born in New York City. But my family moved when I was still an infant. Except for a year and half when we lived in Youngstown, Ohio, I grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania. I graduated from high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania. — E.L. Konigsburg

But happiness is not always loud and bright and crowded. Happiness ripens like a watermelon, sweet and rosy on the inside with only a thin top layer altogether free of small black pits. And, like a watermelon, the whole thing can be covered with a plain dark rind. — E.L. Konigsburg

Just because I don't have on a silly black costume and carry a silly broom and wear a silly black hat, doesn't mean that I'm not a witch. I'm a witch all the time and not just on Halloween. — E.L. Konigsburg

A nasty letter or a sarcastic one can make you righteously angry, but what can you do about a polite letter of rejection? Nothing, really, except cry. — E.L. Konigsburg

If you really want to be a witch, nothing you have to do will seem like too much. If you don't really want to be a witch, everything will seem like too much. — E.L. Konigsburg

I made myself a glass of chocolate milk using enough syrup for three normal glasses. I also made myself four peanut butter crackers. Then I walked out the living room door to our terrace. The trees were coming! New green was all over ... green so new that it was kissing yellow. — E.L. Konigsburg

Art comes from a visceral need and is usually generated by something I have seen; writing comes from something that happens in my head and my heart. — E.L. Konigsburg

Because we are human we have a long childhood, and one of the jobs of that childhood is to sculpt our brains. We have years
about twelve of them
to draw outlines of the shape we want our sculpted brain to take. Some of the parts must be sculpted at critical times. One cannot, after all, carve out toes unless he knows where the foot will go. We need tools to do some of the fine work. The tools are our childhood experiences. And I'm convinced that one of those experiences must be children's books. And they must be experienced within the early years of our long childhood. — E.L. Konigsburg

They are saying that if life has a structure, a staff, a sensible scaffold, we hang our nonsense on it. And they are saying that broken parts add color and music to the staff of life. — E.L. Konigsburg

When you hug someone, you learn something else about them. An important something else. — E.L. Konigsburg

I get ideas for my books from people I know and what happens to them, from places I've been and what happens to me, and from things I read. — E.L. Konigsburg

Jennifer," I asked, "what do you ever do besides read?"
She looked up at the sky and sighed and said very seriously, "I think. — E.L. Konigsburg

True simplicity is elegant. — E.L. Konigsburg

There's something nice and safe about having money. — E.L. Konigsburg

A good lawyer never asks a witness a question she doesn't know the answer to.' 'But, Margaret, I'm not trying to be a good lawyer. I'm trying to be a good friend. — E.L. Konigsburg

After Margaret moved to Florida they continued to stay in touch in a Christmas card/life-milestone way. — E.L. Konigsburg

Both Jamie and Claudia had acquired a talent for being near but never part of a group. (Some people, Saxonberg, never learn to do that all their lives, and some learn it all too well.) — E.L. Konigsburg

After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people. — E.L. Konigsburg

Never have a long conversation with anyone who says between you and I. — E.L. Konigsburg

I want all the books on the shelves.
I want the books with dinosaur words like nigger that show the skeletons in our national closet. I want books with the word cunt as well as the word kike. Words don't scare me. Suppressing them does. — E.L. Konigsburg

The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you. It's the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don't pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home. — E.L. Konigsburg