Kate DiCamillo Quotes

“Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart.”

“I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?”

“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.”

“The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.”

“Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.”

“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.”

“If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.”

“It's hard not to immediately fall in love witha dog who has a good sense of humor.”

“But answer me this: how can a story end happily if there is no love?”

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

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.”

“Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?” “Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. She closed her eyes. “I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.”

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

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

“There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?”

“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.”

“Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.”

“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.”

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

“But, reader, there is no comfort in the word "farewell," even if you say it in French. "Farewell" is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.”

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.”

“It is a bad thing to have love and nowhere to put it.”

“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. so trthen despererux died i n heaven and in peace”

“Edward knew what it was like to say over and over again the names of those you had left behind. He knew what it was like to miss someone. And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still. (page 103)”

“Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. He admired his own defiance. And then, reader, he fainted. :(”

“Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.”

“Magic is always impossible…. It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it's magic.”

“You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.”

“Nothing
would be
easier without
you,
because you
are
everything,
all of it-
sprinkles, quarks, giant
donuts, eggs sunny-side up-
you
are the ever-expanding
universe
to me.”

“That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.”

“Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.”

“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?”

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

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

“It is a horrible, terrible thing, the worst thing, to watch somebody you love die right in front of you and not be able to do nothing about it.”

“You are down there alone, the stars seemed to say to him. And we are up here, in our constellations, together.”

“I promise to always turn back toward you.”

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

“Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.”

“But let's not speak of what might have been. Let us speak instead of what is. You are whole.”

“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.”

“Life was so short; so many beautiful things slipped away.”

“Don't we all live in our heads? Where else could we possibly exist? Our brainsthe universe.”

“No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.”

“Other people’s tragedies should not be the subject of idle conversation.”

“Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.”

“Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently.”

“And hope is like love… a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”

“Thinking about her was the same as the hole you keep on feeling with your tongue after you lose a tooth. Time after time, my mind kept going to that empty spot, the spot where I felt like she should be.”

“They were always on the move. But in truth said bull we are all going nowhere”

“What was it like… to have someone who knew you would always return and who welcomed you with open arms?”

“We forget that the simple gesture of putting a book in someone's hands can change a life. I want to remind you that it can. I want to thank you because it did. - 2010 Indies Choice Award”

“You are the ever-expanding universe to me”

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

“Longing is not always a reciprocal thing.”

“Despereaux," she whispered.
And then she shouted it, "Despereaux!"
Reader, nothing is sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.
Nothing.”

“Everything, as you well know… cannot always be sweetness and light.”

“The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.”

“So many miracles have not yet happened.”

“Her mother called to her. She said, "Where are you going, Flora Belle?"
Flora didn't answer her. She never answered her mother when she called her Flora Belle.
Sometimes she didn't answer her mother when she called her Flora either.”

“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.”

“That was the thing about tragedy. It was just sitting there, keeping you company, waiting. And you had absolutely no idea.”

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

“Reader, you may ask this question; in fact, you must ask this question: Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea?
The answer is… yes. Of course, it's ridiculous.
Love is ridiculous.”

“If the rat had not looked over his shoulder, perhaps his heart would not have broken. And it is possible, then, that I would not have a story to tell. But, reader, he did look.”

“Anything could happen. Together, she and Ulysses could change the world. Or something.”