Kate DiCamillo Quotes

77 Sourced Quotes

During the night, while Bull and Lucy slept, Edward, with ever-open eyes, stared up at the constellations. He said their names, and then he said the names of the people who loved him. He started with Abilene, and then went on to Nellie and Lawrence and from there to Bull and Lucy, and then he ended again with Abilene: Abilene, Nellie, Lawrence, Bull, Lucy, Abilene. See? Edward told Pellegrina. I am not like the princess. I know about love.

Kate DiCamillo
Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.

Kate DiCamillo
All of God's creatures have names, every last one of them. Of that I am sure: of that I have no doubt at all.

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

Kate DiCamillo
Once there was a princess who was very beautiful. She shone bright as the stars on a moonless night. But what difference did it make that she was beautiful? None. No difference." Why did it make no difference?" asked Abilene. Because," said Pellegrina, "She was a princess who loved no one and cared nothing for love, even though there were many who loved her.

Kate DiCamillo
Say it, reader. Say the word "quest" out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.

Kate DiCamillo
He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end, where the reader was assured that the knight and the fair maiden lived together happily ever after.

Kate DiCamillo
This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.

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: food.
The average squirrel cogitation goes something like this: I wonder what there is to eat.

Kate DiCamillo
Despereaux looked down at the book, and something remarkable happened. The marks on the pages, the "squiggles" as Merlot referred to them, arranged themselves into shapes. The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time

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
Look at me, he said to her. His arms and legs jerked. Look at me. You got your wish. I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me. The old woman turned and hobbled away. Come back, thought Edward. Fix me

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
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.

Kate DiCamillo
At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux's feet.

Kate DiCamillo
When you are a king, you may make as many ridiculous laws as you like. That is what being a king is all about.

Kate DiCamillo
She was working to remind herself of who she was. She was working to remember that somewhere in another place entirely she was known and loved.

Kate DiCamillo
We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?

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

Kate DiCamillo
Fairy tales don't tell you that dragons are real, but that they can be defeated!

Kate DiCamillo
Everything, as you well know... cannot always be sweetness and light.

Kate DiCamillo
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
Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too.

Kate DiCamillo
Have you, in truth, ever seen something so heartbreakingly lovely? What are we to make of a world where stars shine bright in the midst of so much darkness and gloom?

Kate DiCamillo
And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

Kate DiCamillo