Water seeks its own level. Look at them. The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze. The world's great rivers. And every one of them finds its way to the ocean. Alison McGhee More Quotes by Alison McGhee More Quotes From Alison McGhee 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