The words, "I have a dog named Winn-Dixie," popped into my head in the voice of a small girl with a southern accent. I'd been writing long enough at that point to know not to ignore that kind of red flag. The next day, I put aside what I'd been working on, started with that one sentence, and followed it all the way to the end.

Kate DiCamillo

Categorized in : Writing Dog Girl

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

moving-on leaving letting-go

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

Kate DiCamillo

together world

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.

Kate DiCamillo

literacy reading children

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane began with a friend giving me a rabbit doll - forgive me, Edward, for using that word; he doesn't like "doll" - for Christmas. I said, "Oh, he's lovely, what's his name?" And she said, "Edward." And a few days after I received the rabbit, who was dressed very handsomely in Edwardian kind of clothes, I saw him stripped of his finery and face down on the bottom of the ocean floor. Why? I don't know. But that's where his story began in my head.

Kate DiCamillo

ocean journey names

It is truly excellent to have someone believe in you and your ability to write. But I think it is just as helpful to have people who don't believe in you, people who mock you, people who doubt you, people who enrage you. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of this type of person in the world ... write for yourself. Write for the story. And write, also, for all of the people who doubt you. Write for all those people who are not brave enough to do this grand and wondrous thing themselves. Let them motivate you.

Kate DiCamillo

writing believe thinking

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

heart two promise

I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.

Kate DiCamillo

reading profound people

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

Kate DiCamillo

sadness names sound

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

Kate DiCamillo

important matter mean

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

Kate DiCamillo

undoing difficult

On the return flight from my mother in Florida , I sat next to a businessman who asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I write," and it seemed totally ridiculous in the face of what had just happened. I mean, I couldn't think of anything more pointless than telling stories. He asked, "What do you write?" I said, "I write children books."

Kate DiCamillo

mother book children

Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you.

Kate DiCamillo

new-friends new-friendship doors

... 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

flower beautiful people

You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.

Kate DiCamillo

next wonder love-you

Mercy Watson is a pig. She lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who are not pigs. I had that basic premise, but I couldn't make it work. I would come back to it, try it, see that I was failing, and put it aside.

Kate DiCamillo

failing pigs trying

So many miracles have not yet happened.

Kate DiCamillo

happened miracle

There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.

Kate DiCamillo

soup body men

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

Kate DiCamillo

light stories dark

Nothing new ever happens in the books. It's the same old theme.

Kate DiCamillo

theme happens book

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

powerful darkness once-upon-a-time