Dicamillo Quotes & Sayings

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. — Kate DiCamillo

A great reader makes a great writer — Kate DiCamillo

Every time you look at the world and the people in it closely, lovingly, imaginatively, it changes you. The world, under the microscope of your attention, opens up like a beautiful, strange flower and gives itself back to you in ways you could never imagine. — Kate DiCamillo

I promise to always turn back toward you. — Kate DiCamillo

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

She might be a natural-born cynic, but she knew the right word when she heard it. — Kate DiCamillo

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

The most important element of breaking into a house is a flashlight, a flashlight will keep ya' on target. You don't wanna be stummblin' around, and it will make it alot crista-crystal-cleaner and crystal like surranwrap you S.O What?, and I'll never tell you a lie 'cause we're gonna get you through this successfully and you wanna have all the stuff were givin' ya now. — Brandon DiCamillo

Where's your dress? — 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

I am alone in the world, Dolores, and I am homesick for my own kind. — Kate DiCamillo

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

Mig watched her father walk away, the red table cloth billowing out behind him. He left his daughter. And, as you already know, he did not look back. Not even once. — Kate DiCamillo

I am busier now than I ever imagined I would be, but I feel blessed in that I have found what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It's wonderful to tell stories and have people listen to them. — Kate DiCamillo

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. — 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

Reader, do you believe that there is such a thing as happily ever after? Or, like Despereaux, have you, too, begun to question the possibility of happy endings? — 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

That way, if my mama ever came back, I could recognize her, and I would be able to grab her and hold on to her tight and not let her get away from me again. — 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

I have already been loved," said Edward. "I have been loved by a girl named Abilene. I have been loved by a fisherman and his wife and a hobo and his dog. I have been loved by a boy who played the harmonica and by a girl who died. Don't talk to me about love," he said. "I have known love. — Kate DiCamillo

Bink," said Gollie, "I must inform you that you are giving a home to a truly unremarkable fish."
"I love him" said Bink. — 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

William Spiver said that the universe was expanding ... that means there will be more of everything! More cheese puffs, more jelly sandwiches, more words, more poems, more love. And more giant donuts ... maybe even gianter donuts. Is gianter a word? It should be. — 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

He felt a wonderful certainty. The impossible, he thought, the impossible is about to happen again. — Kate DiCamillo

I'm at the mercy of whatever character comes into my head. — Kate DiCamillo

Everything, as you well know ... cannot always be sweetness and light. — Kate DiCamillo

This malfeasance must be stopped, said Flora in a deep and superheroic voice. — Kate DiCamillo

Melancholy, I repeated. I liked the way it sounded, like there was music hidden somewhere inside it. Kate Di Camillo, Because of Winn Dixie — Kate DiCamillo

I love your round head,
the brilliant green,
the watching blue,
these letters,
this world, you.
I am very, very hungry. — Kate DiCamillo

This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying. — Kate DiCamillo

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

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

But, alas, he never really belonged in either place, the sad fate, I am afraid, of those whose hearts break and then mend in crooked ways. — Kate DiCamillo

Sometimes he reminded me of a turtle hiding inside its shell, in there thinking about things and not ever sticking his head out into the world. — Kate DiCamillo

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

But I'm not ready to let Winn-Dixie go. — Kate DiCamillo

No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care. — Kate DiCamillo

I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now? — Kate DiCamillo

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

If the wishes came true, they came true in terrible ways. Wishes were dangerous things. That was the idea you got from fairy tales. — Kate DiCamillo

Inside the magic globe that Florence Nightingale carries, there are wishes and hopes and love. And all of these things are very tiny and also very bright. And there are thousands of wishes and hopes and love things, and they move around in the magic globe, and that's what Florence uses to see by. That is how she sees soldiers who have fallen on the battlefield of life. — Kate DiCamillo

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

A what? said Willie May. — Kate DiCamillo

He smiled at me. He did that thing again, where he pulled back his lips and showed me his teeth. He smiled so big it made him sneeze. It was like he was saying, I know i'm a mess. Isn't it funny? — 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 hard not to immediately fall in love witha dog who has a good sense of humor. — 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

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

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

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

It is a horrible, terrible thing, the worst thing, to watch somebody you love die right in front of you and not be able to do nothing about it. — Kate DiCamillo

Are you a man or a mouse? — Kate DiCamillo

How many times, Edward wondered, would he have to leave without getting the chance to say goodbye? — Kate DiCamillo

She were forced to describe it, she would say that it tasted exactly like squirrel: fuzzy, damp, slightly nutty. Have you lost your — Kate DiCamillo

To have someone get out of bed and bring you little fishes and sit with you as you eat them in the dark of night. To hum to you. This is love. — Kate DiCamillo

The sound of the king's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him. — 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

Do you know what it means to be emphatic? I will tell you: It means that when you are being forcibly taken to a dungeon, when you have a large knife at your back, when you are trying to be brave, you are able, still, to think for a moment of the person who is holding the knife. — Kate DiCamillo

I work full-time in a used bookstore. I get up. I drink a cup of coffee. I think, The last thing I want to do is write. Then I go to the computer and write. — Kate DiCamillo

Desperaux," she said. He saw his name on her lips.
"I honor you," whispered Desperaux. "I honor you. — Kate DiCamillo

This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness. — 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

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

I ain't the Princess Pea But someday I will be, The Pea, ha-hee. Someday, I will be. — Kate DiCamillo

Once upon a time, he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him. — Kate DiCamillo

There's no point in going on if you feel that way. No point at all. You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next." "I am done with being loved," Edward told her. "I'm done with loving. It's too painful." "Pish," said the old doll. "Where is your courage?" "Somewhere else, I guess," said Edward. "You disappoint me," she said. "You disappoint me greatly. If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless. You might as well leap from this shelf right now and let yourself shatter into a million pieces. Get it over with. Get it all over with now. — Kate DiCamillo

Beware of the brokenhearted," said the grandmother, "for they will lead you astray. — 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

But perhaps you do not understand. I was crippled, crippled by an elephant that came through the roof - Madam LaVaughn — 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

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

Fairy tales dont tell you that dragons are real, but that they can be defeated! — 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

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

SEASONS PASSED, FALL AND WINTER and spring and summer. Leaves blew in through the open door of Lucius Clarke's shop, and rain, and the green outrageous hopeful light of spring. People came and went, grandmothers and doll collectors and little girls with their mothers. Edward Tulane waited. The seasons turned into years. Edward Tulane waited. He repeated the old doll's words over and over until they wore a smooth groove of hope in his brain: Someone will come; someone will come for you. — Kate DiCamillo

Bah, cynics," said Dr. Meescham. "Cynics are people who are afraid to believe. — Kate DiCamillo

Pascal," said Dr. Meescham, "had it that since it could not be proven whether God existed, one might as well believe that he did, because there was everything to gain by believing and nothing to lose. This is how it is for me. What do I lose if I choose to believe? Nothing!"
"Take this squirrel, for instance. Ulysses. Do I believe he can type poetry? Sure, I do believe it. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible. — Kate DiCamillo

Magic is always impossible ... It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it's magic. — 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

READ. You have no business wanting to be a writer unless you are a reader. You should read fantasies and essays, biographies and poetry, fables and fairy tales. Read, read, read, read, read. — Kate DiCamillo

Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken. — Kate DiCamillo

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

them back. Sometimes, I hit them first." "Oh, — Kate DiCamillo

I loved the preacher so much. I loved him because he loved Winn-Dixie. I loved him because he was going to forgive Winn-Dixie for being afraid. But most of all, I loved him for putting his arm around Winn-Dixie like that, like he was already trying to keep him safe. — Kate DiCamillo

Sometimes the pain in her heart made her feel too terrified to go on. Sometimes it made her want to drop to her knees.
But then she would remember that she had a plan. — Kate DiCamillo

King Phillip and his Queen Rosemary — Kate DiCamillo

she gave her a good clout to the ear. — Kate DiCamillo

READING SHOULD NOT BE PRESENTED TO CHILDREN AS A CHORE OR A DUTY. IT SHOULD BE OFFERED TO THEM AS A PRECIOUS GIFT. — Kate DiCamillo

away from the car. — Kate DiCamillo

My heart, thought Edward, my heart is broken. — Kate DiCamillo

It seems to be that way with most things. No one to do the really disagreeable jobs except oneself. — Kate DiCamillo

thought. "You want some macaroni — 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