Kate DiCamillo Quotes & Sayings

I like to think of myself as a storyteller. — Kate DiCamillo

And this is a time to act, not wonder. — Kate DiCamillo

Farewell" is not the word that you would like to hear from your mother as you are being led to the dungeon by 2 oversize mice in black hoods.
Words that you would like to hear are "Take me instead, I will go to the dungeon in my sons place." There is a great deal of comfort in those words. — Kate DiCamillo

It's different for everyone she said, you find out on your own. But in the meantime, you got to remember, you can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they're doing now. — Kate DiCamillo

I didn't start working on children's books until I got a job at a book warehouse on the children's floor. When I started reading some of the books, I was so impressed. — Kate DiCamillo

Farewell is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises nothing. — Kate DiCamillo

He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end, where the reader was assured that the knight and the fair maiden lived together happily ever after. — Kate DiCamillo

He was agitated for some reason that he could not name. (page 35) — Kate DiCamillo

It was astonishing, really, what people could live through. Flora felt cheered up all of a sudden, just thinking about eating seal blubber and doing impossible things, surviving when the odds were against her and her squirrel. They — Kate DiCamillo

We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?"
"The world cannot be changed," said Gloria. "The world is what the world is and has forever been."
"No," said Leo Matienne softly, "I will not believe that. For here is Peter standing before us, asking us to make it something different. — Kate DiCamillo

At least Lester had the decency to weep at his act of perfidy. Reader, do you know what 'perfidy' means? I have a feeling you do, based on the scene that unfolded here. But you should look up the word in your dictionary, just to be sure. — Kate DiCamillo

Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart. — Kate DiCamillo

Holy unanticipated occurrences! — Kate DiCamillo

And I have some poetry that I would like to recite to you in honor of the recent, um, transformations in your life." Tootie put a hand on her chest. "This is Rilke," she said. "'You, sent out beyond your recall, / go to the limits of your longing. / Embody me. / Flare up like flame / and make big shadows I can move in. — Kate DiCamillo

Edward? Yes yes yes. It is me. Edward thought. — Kate DiCamillo

And now you have a small map of the princess's heart (hatred, sorrow, kindness, empathy), the heart that she carried down inside her as she went down the golden stairs and through the kitchen and, finally, just as the sky outside the castle began to lighten, down into the dark dungeon with the rat and the serving girl. — Kate DiCamillo

leave you alone. — Kate DiCamillo

I thought I was going nowhere, but now I see there was a pattern. — Kate DiCamillo

Mon Dieu, look, look," says Antoinette. "He lives. He lives! And he seems such the happy mouse."
"Forgiven," whispers Lester.
"Cripes," says Furlough, "unbelievable."
"Just so," says the threadmaster, Hovis, smiling. "Just so."
And, reader, it is just so.
Isn't it? — Kate DiCamillo

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen. — Kate DiCamillo

Not much goes on in the mind of a squirrel.
Huge portions of what is loosely termed "the squirrel brain" are given over to one thought: food.
The average squirrel cogitation goes something like this: I wonder what there is to eat. — Kate DiCamillo

I have done quite a few signings at bookstores, libraries and conferences. I have received phone calls and letters from people who liked the book. — Kate DiCamillo

They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page. Happily ever after. Despereaux was sure that he had read exactly those words time and time again.
Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting ... Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really not live happily ever after? — Kate DiCamillo

What was the apostrophe doing there? Did the doctor own the Meescham? And what was it with exclamation marks? Did people not know what they were for? Surprise, anger, joy - that's what exclamation marks were for. They had nothing to do with who resided where. — Kate DiCamillo

I am single and childless, but I have lots of friends and I am an aunt to three lovely children. — Kate DiCamillo

It is all gone, though Peter. All of it is gone! And there is no way to get it back.
'Eat,' said Leo Matienne again, very gently.
Peter looked the truth of what he had lost full in the face.
And then he ate. — Kate DiCamillo

Do not hope; instead, observe were words that Flora, as a cynic, had found useful in the extreme. She repeated them to herself a lot. — Kate DiCamillo

What was it like ... to have someone who knew you would always return and who welcomed you with open arms? — Kate DiCamillo

My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it. After I write, I go to work at the bookstore. — Kate DiCamillo

To Flora, the doorbell sounded like the electric chair. Not — Kate DiCamillo

My favorite six letter word is
always
because it promises
so much.

My favorite five letter word is
never
because it insists on contradicting
the promise.

My favorite four letter word is
once
because it says it
happened then.

My favorite three letter word is
yes
because I'm just now learning
to say it
to my heart.

My favorite two letter word is
if
because it makes
all things possible
like this:

If not always
If not never
Then once.

Yes. — Kate DiCamillo

But answer me this: how can a story end happily if there is no love? — Kate DiCamillo

The April sun, weak but determined, shone through a castle window and from there squeezed itself through a small hole in the wall and placed one golden finger on the little mouse. — Kate DiCamillo

Why would you save me?
Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.'
- A Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo - P. 81 — Kate DiCamillo

It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. The best way for children to treasure reading is to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure. — Kate DiCamillo

She was working to remind herself of who she was. She was working to remember that somewhere in another place entirely she was known and loved. — Kate DiCamillo

Stories are light. — Kate DiCamillo

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it. — Kate DiCamillo

A SUPERHERO SQUIRREL RESTED AT HER FEET, AND SO SHE WAS NOT LONELY AT ALL emblazoned — Kate DiCamillo

Stall! Delay! Obfuscate! "Let's," said Flora. — Kate DiCamillo

I'm not exactly sure how old the girls are [in Bink & Gollie], but I can pretty much guarantee that their parents will never show up. That would mess up the fun. I do, however, very much like Kate's idea of having Tony [Fucile] draw their portraits. — Kate DiCamillo

Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently. — Kate DiCamillo

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

I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay. — Kate DiCamillo

If the world held magic powerful enough to make the elephant appear, then there must exist, too, magic in equal measure, magic powerful enough to undo what had been done. — Kate DiCamillo

She was terribly pleased, because she had always, secretly, deep within her heart, believed that she could fly. And now here she was, doing what she had long suspected she could do, and she could not deny that it was gratifying in the extreme. — Kate DiCamillo

Sometimes there are no reasons. Often, most of the time, there are no reasons. The world cannot be explained. — Kate DiCamillo

A squirrel flies in," said Dr. Meescham. "This I did not expect at all. It is what I love about life, that things happen which I do not expect. When I was a girl in Blundermeecen, we left the window open for this very reason, even in the winter. We did it because we believed something wonderful might make its way to us through the open window. Did wonderful things find us? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But tonight it has happened! Something wonderful!" Dr. Meescham clapped her hands. "A window has been left open. A squirrel flies in the window. The heart of an old woman rejoices! — Kate DiCamillo

Furlough?" He said.
"What?" said the first hood irritably.
Despereaux shuddered. His own brother was delivering him to the dungeon. His heart stopped beating and shrunk to a small, cold, disbelieving pebble. — Kate DiCamillo

Did Rob make it?" Sistine asked Willie May. "He did," said Willie May. "It looks alive. Is it like your bird that you let go? — Kate DiCamillo

That was the thing about tragedy. It was just sitting there, keeping you company, waiting. And you had absolutely no idea. — Kate DiCamillo

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

I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern. — Kate DiCamillo

Below him, the lamplighter was lighting the lamps that lined the wide avenue. — Kate DiCamillo

She liked the way the words sounded. She imagined them floating above her in a comic-strip bubble — Kate DiCamillo

If you want to be a writer, write a little bit every day. Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart. — Kate DiCamillo

And hope is like love ... a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing. — Kate DiCamillo

I hate to cook and love to eat. — Kate DiCamillo

Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread. — Kate DiCamillo

I don't understand,' said Despereaux.
'And you will not understand until you lose what you love ... — Kate DiCamillo

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

So many miracles have not yet happened. — Kate DiCamillo

Don't drop him," said Peter's mother to his father. "Don't you dare drop him." She was laughing.
"I will not," said his father. "I could not." For he is Peter Augustus Duchene, and he will always return to me.
Again and again, Peter's father threw him up in the air. Again and again, Peter felt himself suspended in nothingness for a moment, just a moment, and then he was pulled back, returned to the sweetness of the earth and the warmth of his father's waiting arms.
"See?" said his father to his mother. "Do you see how he always comes back to me? — Kate DiCamillo

Her words sounded the way all those things made him feel, as if the world, the real world, had been punched through, so that he could see something wonderful and dazzling on the other side of it. — Kate DiCamillo

The story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light. — Kate DiCamillo

Are you a man or a mouse? — Kate DiCamillo

It occurred to her that nobody really knew what anybody else was upset about, and that seemed like a terrible thing. — Kate DiCamillo

May God strike me down with a hammer on the head before I write a book with a teach-y goal! — Kate DiCamillo

It's not even that I bump into things. It's more that things leap out of nowhere and bump into me — Kate DiCamillo

Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light. — Kate DiCamillo

Everything I write comes from my childhood in one way or another. I am forever drawing on the sense of mystery and wonder and possibility that pervaded that time of my life. — Kate DiCamillo

Rob sat out on the curb in front of the motel room and waited for Sistine to come back from using the phone. — Kate DiCamillo

Besides, who ever asked you what you wanted in this world, girl?
The answer to that question, reader, as you well know, was absolutely no one. — Kate DiCamillo

I bet you didn't think I'd come back. But here I am. I come to save you. Too late, thought Edward as Bryce climbed the pole and worked at the wires that were tied around his wrists. I am nothing but a hollow rabbit. Too late, thought Edward as Bryce pulled the nails out of his ears. I am only a doll made of china. But when the last nail was out and he fell forward into Bryce's arms, the rabbit felt a rush of relief, and the feeling of relief was followed by one of joy. Perhaps, he thought, it is not too late, after all, for me to be saved. — Kate DiCamillo

Say it, reader. Say the word 'quest' out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope. — Kate DiCamillo

It was the strangest things, how happiness came out of nowhere and inflated your soul. — Kate DiCamillo

Never in his life had Edward been cradled like a baby. Abilene had not done it. Nor had Nellie. And most certainly, Bull had not. It was a singular sensation to be held so gently and yet so fiercely, to be stared down at with so much love. Edward felt the whole of his china body flood with warmth. (page 128) — Kate DiCamillo

She had on a spangled top that sparkled like fish scales. Her hair was very yellow. She looked like a mermaid in a bad mood.
(p. 82 RAYMIE NIGHTINGALE) — Kate DiCamillo

At the concession stand, Leroy Ninker said, "Thank you very much!" He said, "Extra butter on that?" He also said, "Yippie-i-oh." Leroy Ninker said "Yippie-i-oh" because Leroy Ninker had a dream. He wanted to be a cowboy. On Wednesday nights, the Bijou Drive-In Theater ran a Western double feature, and Leroy Ninker stood and watched in wonder as the great white expanse of the Bijou screen filled with purple mountains, wide-open plains, and cowboys. The cowboys wore ten-gallon hats. They wore boots. They carried lassos. The cowboys were — Kate DiCamillo

What is?', he said. 'What if?' is a question that belongs to magic. — Kate DiCamillo

If memory serves me correctly, and it doesn't always, Kate [DiCamillo] and I met in the fall of 2001 at the former Figlio's restaurant in Minneapolis. We were laughing within a minute of meeting - always a good sign. — Kate DiCamillo

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

Reader, you may ask this queston. In fact, you must ask this question. Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse fall in love with a beautiful princess named Pea? The answer is..
Yes. Of course it's ridiculous.
Love is ridiculous.
But love is also wonderful. And powerful. — Kate DiCamillo

And he discovered, finally, the source of the honey-sweet sound.
The sound was music.
The sound was King Phillip playing his guitar and singing for his daughter, the Princess Pea, every night before she fell asleep.
Hidden in a hole in the wall of the princess's bedroom, the mouse listened with all his heart. The sound of the King's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him.
Oh," he said, "it sounds like heaven. It smells like honey. — Kate DiCamillo

Yes, ma'am. He figured the world was a sorry affair and that it had enough ugly things in it and what he was going to do was concentrate on putting something sweet in it. — Kate DiCamillo

Who can say what astonishments are hidden inside the most mundane being? — Kate DiCamillo

He must, he realized, know somewhere, deep inside him, more things than he had ever dreamed of. — Kate DiCamillo

The longer he marched, the more convinced Peter became that things were indeed hopeless and that an elephant was a ridiculous answer to any question- but a particularly ridiculous answer to a question posed by the human heart. — Kate DiCamillo

Nothing
would be
easier without
you,
because you
are
everything,
all of it-
sprinkles, quarks, giant
donuts, eggs sunny-side up-
you
are the ever-expanding
universe
to me. — Kate DiCamillo

I always write with music. It takes me a while to figure out the right piece of music for what I'm working on. Once I figure it out, that's the only thing I'll play. — Kate DiCamillo

There was something scary about watching adults sleep. It was as if no one at all were in charge of the world. — Kate DiCamillo

I made you something, — Kate DiCamillo

Rat. A curse, an insult, a word totally without light. — Kate DiCamillo

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name. — Kate DiCamillo

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light. — Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux turned. He looked up and into the Head Mouse's eyes. They were dark eyes, deep and sad and frightened. And as Despereaux looked into them, his heart thudded once, twice. — Kate DiCamillo

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

Listen, said Beverly. Let me tell you something. There is no Very Friendly Animal Center. That cat is long gone. — Kate DiCamillo

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter. — Kate DiCamillo

Other people's tragedies should not be the subject of idle conversation. — Kate DiCamillo