The world should have stopped, but it didn't. The world kept on going. How can the world just keep on going? An earthquake in India kills a thousand people, and the world keeps on going. A famine in China kills a million people, and the world keeps on going. The twin towers of the World Trade Center buckle and fall, and the world, the world keeps on going.

Alison McGhee

Categorized in : Fall Earthquakes Should Have

You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No.

Alison McGhee

powerful expectations people

Little boy, you remind me how so much depends of day made of now

Alison McGhee

mother boys son

Your heart literally hurts when it's breaking. You can feel it, every beat another ache, and nothing you can do will stop it, either from beating or breaking.

Alison McGhee

beats hurt heart

You are most powerful when you are most silent.

Alison McGhee

most-powerful silent powerful

We certainly have a lot of ideas, and we both love what Tony [Fucile] did with the book [Bink & Gollie]. If we could all pull it off, I think all three of us would like to do another.

Alison McGhee

book ideas thinking

Walk slowly; all you can ever come to is yourself.

Alison McGhee

walks

I'm a big State Fair person, and my main goal is to eat as much food as possible, but I tend not to do the foods on a stick. But I like Big Fat Bacon.

Alison McGhee

states sticks goal

We'd decided to write a book about two friends. I gave her some coffee and then we sat there not knowing what to do. How do you start writing a book together? So Kate [DiCamillo] got up after about 10 minutes into this endeavor, and said, 'Well, that was fun,' and started to head out the door. I said, 'Wait, wait, wait, no no no,' because I'm a bit more patient.

Alison McGhee

coffee fun book

Wouldn't want to miss a war, would I?

Alison McGhee

missing want war

So we [with Kate DiCamillo] would act them out, we would toss ideas back and forth, we would laugh, we would argue. Sometimes it went really well, sometimes it was such a pain in the ass. Our other rule was that we wouldn't work on it at all when we weren't in the other's presence. It was really hard not to do that. We'd start going on email back and forth, 'What do you think about this, what do you think about that?' But, no, no, no, it had to be live. So we forced ourselves not to look at it except during those two-hour stretches when we were actually with each other.

Alison McGhee

pain ideas thinking

We met in the summer or fall of 2001. I had never met Kate [DiCamillo], though I'd heard her name, and I think she knew of me too. We were laughing within a few minutes, I mean really, furiously, laughing. So we were off to a good start.

Alison McGhee

summer mean fall

I like to write in all different genres. I just like a new challenge.

Alison McGhee

different challenges writing

Kate [DiCamillo] tends to be more reluctant about change. I convinced her to give it a try and she came over.

Alison McGhee

convinced trying giving

So we [with Kate DiCamillo] decided to give the friends an object and see what they did with it. The object was a sock and it went from there. Once we got going, once we got on a roll, it became very easy to work together and to figure out how to do it. We would meet for two-hour segments, usually from 10-12, two or three times a week. We met all one summer, and I think into the fall.

Alison McGhee

summer fall thinking

Our rule was that we [with Kate DiCamillo] would write everything together, literally every word.

Alison McGhee

kate together writing

We pulled them [ Bink & Gollie] out of our feeble little brains.

Alison McGhee

brain littles

I don't think we [with Kate DiCamillo] intended to write a book about friendship, I think we intended to write a book about two friends.

Alison McGhee

writing book thinking

We had dinner at Figlio's, which has turned into a restaurant called Il Gato. I'm 99% positive I had Joe's Eggs. I know every time I went there, and I loved it, I ordered Joe's Eggs. Kate [DiCamillo] probably had a pizza, because she loves pizza.

Alison McGhee

restaurants dinner eggs

We had so much fun together as friends that I suggested we [with Kate DiCamillo] write a book together.

Alison McGhee

writing fun book

All it takes is a single moment.

Alison McGhee

single-mom moments