Kate DiCamillo Quotes

He knew how to construct a song out of the nothing of day-to-day life and how to sing that nothing into a song so beautiful that it could sustain the vision of a whole and better world.
Kate DiCamillo
And Edward was surprised to discover that he was listening. Before, when Abilene had talked to him, everything had seemed so boring, so pointless. But now, the stories Nellie told struck him as the most important thing in the world and he listened as if his life depended on what she said." (page 69)
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
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
So many miracles have not yet happened.
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
It's hard not to immediately fall in love witha dog who has a good sense of humor.
Kate DiCamillo
You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.
Kate DiCamillo
Desperaux," she said. He saw his name on her lips."I honor you," whispered Desperaux. "I honor you.
Kate DiCamillo
He would write and write. He would make wonderful things happen. Some of it would be true. All of it would be true. Most of it would be true.
Kate DiCamillo
He was a squirrel. Could he be a superhero, too?
Kate DiCamillo
But I'm not ready to let Winn-Dixie go.
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
He was agitated for some reason that he could not name. (page 35)
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
Stories are light.
Kate DiCamillo
There ain't no point in making soup unless others eat it. Soup needs another mouth to taste it, another heart to be warmed by it.
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
Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.
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
Gloria put a bowl of stew in Peter's hands. "Eat," she said.Peter raised the spoon to his lips. He chewed. He swallowed.It had been a long time since he had eaten anything besides tiny fish and old bread.And so when Peter had his first bite of stew, it overwhelmed him. The warmth of it, the richness of it, knocked him backward; it was as if a gentle hand had pushed him when he was not expecting it. Everything he had lost came flooding back: the garden, his father, his mother, his sister, the promises that he had made and could not keep."What's this?" said Gloria Matienne. "The boy is crying.""Shhh," said Leo. He put his hand on Peter's shoulder. "Shhh. Don't worry, Peter. Everything will be good. All will be well. We will do together whatever it is that needs to be done. But for now, you must eat."Peter nodded. He raised his spoon. Again he chewed and swallowed, and again he was overcome. He could not help it. He could not stop the tears; they flowed down his cheeks and into the bowl. "It is a very good stew, Madam Matienne. he managed to say. "Truly, it is an excellent stew.
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:
Kate DiCamillo
He felt a wonderful certainty. The impossible, he thought, the impossible is about to happen again.
Kate DiCamillo
What is?', he said. 'What if?' is a question that belongs to magic.
Kate DiCamillo
But that is impossible," said Peter."Magic is always impossible," said the magician. "It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.
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
The world went on. People left and people died and people went to memorial services and put orange blocks of cheese into their purses. People confessed to you that they were hungry all the time. And then you got up in the morning and pretended that none of it had happened.
Kate DiCamillo
Listen, said Beverly. Let me tell you something. There is no Very Friendly Animal Center. That cat is long gone.
Kate DiCamillo
Edward knew what it was like to say over and over again the names of those you had left behind. He knew what it was like to miss someone. And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still. (page 103)
Kate DiCamillo
He said, 'I forgive you, Pa."And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself.
Kate DiCamillo
This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness.
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
And Rob knew then that he had picked the right person to tell.
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
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
Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.
Kate DiCamillo
There are those 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. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.
Kate DiCamillo
Dear God, thank you for warm summer nights and candlelight and good food. But thank you most of all for friends. 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. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.
Kate DiCamillo
It is our duty and our joy to communicate our hearts to each other. Words assist us in this task.
Kate DiCamillo
The words were good words, Ulysses felt, maybe even great words, but the list was very incomplete. He was just getting started. The words needed to be arranged, fussed with, put in the order of his heart.
Kate DiCamillo
She liked the way the words sounded. She imagined them floating above her in a comic-strip bubble
Kate DiCamillo
She might be a natural-born cynic, but she knew the right word when she heard it.
Kate DiCamillo
She said the words, and then she had a strange moment of seeing them, hanging there over her head. "You're going to vacuum up that squi
Kate DiCamillo
I have been loved said Edward to the stars.
Kate DiCamillo
There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?
Kate DiCamillo
Magic is always impossible. It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That's why it is magic.
Kate DiCamillo
Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.
Kate DiCamillo
The sound of the king's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him.
Kate DiCamillo
Despereaux was reading the story out loud to himself. He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end...
Kate DiCamillo
We forget that the simple gesture of putting a book in someone's hands can change a life. I want to remind you that it can. I want to thank you because it did. - 2010 Indies Choice Award
Kate DiCamillo
Normally, Edward would have found intrusive, clingy behavior of this sort very annoying, but there was something about Sarah Ruth. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do more for her. (page 135)
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
There is nothing worse than war in the summetime.
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
Oh, my goodness,” said Louisiana. “I’m just all filled up with feathers and regrets. And fears. I have a lot of fears.
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
Nothingwould beeasier withoutyou,because youare everything,all of it-sprinkles, quarks, giantdonuts, eggs sunny-side up-youare the ever-expandinguniverseto me.
Kate DiCamillo
And hope is like love...a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.
Kate DiCamillo
Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since,in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?
Kate DiCamillo
If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.
Kate DiCamillo