Kate Dicamillo Quotes

Powerful Kate Dicamillo for Daily Growth

About Kate Dicamillo

Kate DiCamillo is an acclaimed American children's book author, renowned for her heartwarming narratives filled with wit, empathy, and a touch of magic. Born on March 25, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she grew up in Florida where she developed a love for storytelling from an early age. DiCamillo's life took an unexpected turn when she moved to Minneapolis to work as a copy editor at a publishing company. It was here that she decided to pursue her own writing career, taking inspiration from the rich literary culture of Minnesota and the works of beloved authors like Mark Twain and Harper Lee. In 1998, DiCamillo published her debut novel, "Because of Winn-Dixie," a heartfelt story about a young girl named Opal and her newfound friendship with a stray dog. The book was widely praised for its vivid characters and poignant themes of loneliness, friendship, and the healing power of storytelling. DiCamillo continued to captivate readers with her subsequent works, including "The Tale of Despereaux" (2003), which won the Newbery Medal, and "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" (2006). Her stories often revolve around lost or overlooked characters finding their place in the world. In 2013, DiCamillo released a spin-off series to "Because of Winn-Dixie," titled "Raymie Nightingale." The novel tells the story of another young girl, Raymie, who seeks answers and healing in the face of her family's turmoil. DiCamillo continues to write and inspire readers with her evocative stories and unforgettable characters. Her work has garnered numerous awards and accolades, solidifying her status as a beloved figure in children's literature.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other."

This quote suggests that when we share experiences, emotions, or thoughts with someone, it creates a bond between us. As we open up and connect on a deeper level, our affinity for the other person often grows naturally. Sharing can lead to an increased understanding and appreciation of each other, fostering liking and friendship. It highlights the power of communication and shared experiences in building relationships.

"Sometimes when you're in a dark place, you think you have been buried, but you've been planted."

This quote suggests that when we find ourselves in challenging or difficult situations (the "dark place"), we may feel like we are being buried, symbolizing despair or defeat. However, the truth is, we are not being buried, but rather planted, which signifies growth and rebirth. It's a reminder that even in adversity, there is potential for transformation and resilience, as life often cultivates new opportunities for growth.

"Words are small and fragile things. If you don't believe me, just try to break one."

This quote emphasizes the delicate nature of words as powerful tools for communication and understanding. The fragility of words suggests their potential for easy harm or misuse, yet also underscores their significance in conveying emotions, ideas, and stories. Breaking a word refers not only to its physical destruction but also to the manipulation or misinterpretation that can distort its intended meaning, potentially causing hurt or misunderstanding. Thus, this quote encourages us to value words as precious gifts of communication and to use them with care, respect, and consideration.

"Every morning may not be good, but there is something about mornings that is good."

This quote by Kate DiCamillo underscores the inherent positivity and fresh start that every new day brings, even if it doesn't turn out to be a perfect one. It suggests that while each morning may not offer an ideal situation or mood, there is always a chance for improvement, growth, and optimism as we navigate through the day. The quote emphasizes the resilience of human spirit and our ability to find something good in every new beginning.

"Sometimes the only way to find out what you truly believe is to live it, to put your beliefs into action."

This quote suggests that personal beliefs can only be confirmed as authentic when they are not just acknowledged intellectually, but also demonstrated through action. In other words, a person's true convictions become clear when they translate those beliefs into practical, everyday behaviors. Essentially, the quote encourages people to live their beliefs and not merely profess them, as it is in the act of putting beliefs into practice that they can be validated and strengthened.

I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have found what I am supposed to do and to get to do it.

- Kate DiCamillo

Feel, Like, I Feel, Luckiest

I was a kid who loved to read. I read everything I could get my hands on. I didn't have one favorite book. I had lots of favorite books: 'The Borrowers' by Mary Norton, 'Paddington' by Michael Bond, 'A Little Princess' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 'Stuart Little' by EB White, 'A Cricket in Times Square,' all the Beverly Cleary books.

- Kate DiCamillo

Book, Hands, Kid, Norton

I have a part-time dog. I'm actually an aunt to a dog, and he's an awful dog, but I love him. He's only interested in doing what he wants to do.

- Kate DiCamillo

Love, Doing, Awful, Aunt

I am single and childless, but I have lots of friends and I am an aunt to three lovely children.

- Kate DiCamillo

Lovely, Single, Lots, Aunt

I write in my house, at my desk, where I have Christmas lights strung over it to try and convince me that I'm having a good time. I can't really write anywhere else.

- Kate DiCamillo

Over It, I Write, Anywhere, Strung

I am stuck at 10 years old. I think.

- Kate DiCamillo

I Am, Think, I Think, Stuck

I get my inspiration from looking at the world and paying attention to people and just looking closely. Also from reading. I get so much inspiration from other authors.

- Kate DiCamillo

Reading, Other, Closely, Just Looking

Writing a novel isn't like building a brick wall. You don't figure out how to do it, and then it gets easier each time because you know what you're doing. With writing a novel, you have to figure it out each time. Each time you start over, you just have the language and the idea and the hope.

- Kate DiCamillo

Doing, Idea, Each Time, Brick

'Island of the Blue Dolphins' by Scott O'Dell had a huge impact on me.

- Kate DiCamillo

Blue, Island, Huge Impact, Scott

I was lucky enough to have a mother who took me to the library - the public library - twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. And also bought me books. And also read aloud to me.

- Kate DiCamillo

Week, Lucky, Took, Saturdays

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

Book, Other, Use, Well-Written

I was a very sickly kid and suffered from chronic pneumonia, which is why we moved to the warm southern climate. I think being ill contributed to my development as a writer. I learned early on to entertain myself by reading.

- Kate DiCamillo

Southern, Very, Entertain, Chronic

Writing at home and then going out into the world to talk about why books matter to me feeds the writing. It's a good mix. It provides balance.

- Kate DiCamillo

Why, Going, About, Mix

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

- Kate DiCamillo

Children, Gift, Offered, Chore

From a cognitive standpoint, I'm very aware that you have no room for error in a picture book. Every word counts.

- Kate DiCamillo

Book, Very, Counts, Standpoint

There's this amplification that happens anytime you tell a story. You let it go out into the world. It's the most beautiful thing. All I can do is look at it in wonder and amazement.

- Kate DiCamillo

Tell, I Can, Amazement, Amplification

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.

- Kate DiCamillo

Children, I Write, Currently, Minneapolis

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

Childhood, My Life, I Write, Possibility

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

Book, Some, Impressed, Started Reading

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

- Kate DiCamillo

Character, Whatever, Head, Mercy

In a first draft, I concentrate on moving forward and trying not to panic.

- Kate DiCamillo

Trying, Forward, Draft, Concentrate

If you sit down and read with your kid, either having your child read to you or you reading to your child at a regular time each day, it deepens the relationship. You don't have to talk about stuff; the story will do that work for you.

- Kate DiCamillo

Your Child, Kid, About, Regular

My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.

- Kate DiCamillo

Telling, Looked, Profoundly, Token

Whenever I am with a group of kids, I always ask them, 'How many of you know about the summer reading program at your library and how many of you know it's free?' Spreading that sort of message comes very naturally to me.

- Kate DiCamillo

Very, About, Program, Group

I find that when I write for children, I am more hopeful, less cynical. I don't use different words or a different sentence structure. I just hope more.

- Kate DiCamillo

More, Sentence, I Write, Cynical

How do you make your kids read more? It needs to be presented as a joy and a privilege to get to do it, and the kids should get to see you as a parent reading for your own pleasure. It's not something you send your kids off to do, 'Go into your room and read for 15 minutes or else.' It becomes a task then.

- Kate DiCamillo

Parent, Own, 15 Minutes, Send

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

Waiting, Every Day, Your, Open

Everybody reading the same book at the same time pulls people together. It does start a conversation. If you're going to read 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,' you're going to talk about heartbreak and loss and all of those things that people don't talk about as a community.

- Kate DiCamillo

Book, Heartbreak, Everybody, Conversation

When you write for kids, people always ask you what lesson you mean to impart. I don't think adult writers get that question. I never mean to teach anybody a lesson, because I don't know anything myself.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Question, Always, Impart

My father - he was an orthodontist - was supposed to sell his practice and move down to Florida, but that never happened... I would sometimes spend the summer with him and visit him, but he never lived with us.

- Kate DiCamillo

Practice, Florida, Move, Visit

I'm not going to make judgments about what people are reading. I just want them to be reading. And I think reading one book leads to another book.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Going, I Think, One Book

I have no talents. But I do have hope. And wonder. And love. Maybe those are talents?

- Kate DiCamillo

Love, Wonder, Maybe, Talents

It wasn't until my fifth or sixth book where I realized I'm trying to do the same thing in every story I tell, which is bring everybody together in the same room.

- Kate DiCamillo

Everybody, Same Thing, Which, Fifth

When I was 5 years old, I moved with my mother and brother from Philadelphia to a small town in Florida. People talked more slowly there and said words I had never heard before, like 'ain't' and 'y'all' and 'ma'am.' Everybody knew everybody else. Even if they didn't, they acted like they did.

- Kate DiCamillo

Small, Florida, Everybody, Acted

When I was starting to write, I was fascinated with 'Knuffle Bunny' by Mo Willems. I remember taking it home and typing it out, trying to figure out how it worked. It's just a classic, with dauntingly few words.

- Kate DiCamillo

I Remember, Out, Fascinated, Starting

I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.

- Kate DiCamillo

Writing, About, Ended, Rewriting

I always wanted to be a character when I worked at Disney, but I wasn't short enough for certain characters, and I wasn't tall enough for others.

- Kate DiCamillo

Enough, Always, Characters, Tall

Writing my own stories had always been one of my dreams, but I didn't start until I was 29. I was working in a book warehouse and was assigned to the third floor where all the children's books were. For four and a half years, I spent all day, every day around children's books, and it wasn't long before I fell in love with them.

- Kate DiCamillo

Love, Been, Half, Floor

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

Other, Everybody, Stories, Remind

If you read, the world is your oyster. It truly is. Reading makes everything possible.

- Kate DiCamillo

World, Makes, Read, Oyster

I think our job is to trust our readers. I think our job is to see and to let ourselves be seen. I think our job is to love the world.

- Kate DiCamillo

Love, Trust, Think, Readers

Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?

- Kate DiCamillo

Hands, Kid, Will, Letter

There's still, even now, a part of me that can't believe that I got published. That part of me has never gone away.

- Kate DiCamillo

Away, Part, Still, Published

I decided a long time ago that I didn't have to be talented. I just had to be persistent.

- Kate DiCamillo

Long Time, Talented, Decided, Persistent

How do I feel when I look back at prior work? Hmmm. I think, 'I tried to do the best I could do. It's not perfect. It will never be perfect.' And then I think, 'I want to try again.'

- Kate DiCamillo

Perfect, Feel, I Think, Prior

My parents are separated. My father left when I was six years old.

- Kate DiCamillo

Old, Left, Six, Separated

I think that sometimes we open our hearts a little more easily to animals than we do to each other.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Other, I Think, Hearts

I actually participated in a Little Miss Orange Blossom Contest when was I was seven or eight years old. I remember standing up on the stage and thinking, 'Oh boy, I should not be here.' Obviously, I didn't win.

- Kate DiCamillo

I Remember, Seven, Here, Standing Up

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

My Life, Doing, Tell, Busier

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

Think, Full-Time, I Think, Bookstore

My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I'm always glad that I have done it. After I write, I go to work at the bookstore.

- Kate DiCamillo

Goal, Week, Always, Bookstore

I read a couple of books a week. About 80 percent of what I read is contemporary literature for adults. The other 20 percent is made up of non-fiction and children's books.

- Kate DiCamillo

Other, Couple, Read, Contemporary

We have this thing as human beings: we have a profound need for story. That's what kids need.

- Kate DiCamillo

Profound, Need, Human Beings, Beings

When I was a kid, it never occurred to me that human beings wrote books. It was a kind of cognitive dissonance for me... I just didn't think it was something that people did.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Kind, Occurred, Beings

It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. The best way for children to treasure reading is to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.

- Kate DiCamillo

Best Way, Read, Lives, Insist

It's such a potent thing, to be a kid. We grow up, and we don't want to remember how everything is so beautiful and terrifying when we're young. The older you get, the more you hope to muffle things.

- Kate DiCamillo

Young, Terrifying, Potent, Older

I didn't really start to write until I was almost 30, and I started with the short stories.

- Kate DiCamillo

Start, Stories, Almost, Short Stories

I always have a notebook with me, I eavesdrop; I write down what people say. It's very rare that one of those things will provoke a story, but I think that that kind of paying attention all the time, and keeping everything open, lets the stories come in. But where they come from is still a mystery to me.

- Kate DiCamillo

I Think, Very, I Write, Paying

So much of writing is like walking down a dark hallway with your arms out in front of you. You bump into a lot of things.

- Kate DiCamillo

Down, Like, Your, Hallway

I don't know what my mother was thinking, but she entered me in a Little Miss contest - Little Miss Orange Blossom, I think it was. And I don't remember anything about that, except I have one flash-bulb memory of standing on the stage and thinking, 'This is not where I should be.'

- Kate DiCamillo

Memory, I Think, About, Miss

It's a very powerful, emotional thing to read a book, and to reduce it to a series of questions in a test strips something away from the book.

- Kate DiCamillo

Very, Reduce, Read, Strips

Happily, I had lots of childhood heroes.

- Kate DiCamillo

Childhood, Heroes, Lots, Happily

Whether it is fear of having fish pie or staying in someone's house or not being able to tell the time, all of those things I can remember very clearly. We so often forget how big all these things are for very small children because they are so often trying these things for the first time.

- Kate DiCamillo

Small, Big, Very, Fish

Everything about writing is hard for me except for that - the names pop into my head. That's one of the reasons why I always make sure I have a notebook with me.

- Kate DiCamillo

Always, Sure, Reasons, Notebook

Understand, I had absolutely no interest in writing; I wanted to be a Writer.

- Kate DiCamillo

Interest, Wanted, Absolutely, No Interest

To me, this is one of the great things about writing kids' books: the illustrations.

- Kate DiCamillo

Me, Books, Illustrations, Great Things

I have a Bachelor of Arts in English, which means I had a lot of formal training in reading.

- Kate DiCamillo

Formal, Which, Lot, Bachelor

I was someone who wanted to be a writer but who wasn't writing. I was someone buying books on writing. I was someone telling people that I was writer. But I was not writing.

- Kate DiCamillo

Someone, Telling, Books, Buying

I like to think of myself as a storyteller.

- Kate DiCamillo

Myself, Think, Like, Storyteller

I was a shy, terrified kid. But I was also a kid who was lucky enough to have friends. I laughed with those friends. I had adventures. We dreamed together. I relied on them.

- Kate DiCamillo

Lucky, Shy, Terrified, Laughed

I had it in my head when I was in college that I wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to commit to being a writer. Up until then, I had worked one dead-end job after another while writing on the side.

- Kate DiCamillo

College, Another, Commit, Dead-End

I'm never impressed with myself!

- Kate DiCamillo

Myself, Never, Impressed

I have always been a reader. I was one of those kids desperate to learn. I would read anything.

- Kate DiCamillo

Always, Been, Read, Desperate

Progress is hard to measure in any creative endeavor, I think. It's often a matter of instinct, of feeling your way through what works and what doesn't.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Through, I Think, Instinct

I hate to cook and love to eat.

- Kate DiCamillo

Love, Hate, Eat, Cook

I always write with music. It takes me a while to figure out the right piece of music for what I'm working on. Once I figure it out, that's the only thing I'll play.

- Kate DiCamillo

Play, Always, Figure, Piece

I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.

- Kate DiCamillo

Thought, See, Going, Nowhere

I think hope and magic are probably connected.

- Kate DiCamillo

Magic, Think, I Think, Connected

I can never tell if anything I do is really good. I'm always just slightly chagrined.

- Kate DiCamillo

Good, Tell, Always, Slightly

I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.

- Kate DiCamillo

Think, Person, I Think, Lucky

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