Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolenis an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 280 books, of which the best known is The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella. Her other works include the Nebula Award-winning short story Sister Emily's Lightship, the novelette Lost Girls, Owl Moon, The Emperor and the Kite, the Commander Toad series and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. She gave the lecture for the 1989 Alice G. Smith Lecture,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth11 February 1939
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Exercise the writing muscle every day.
What makes a good book? Scholars and critics have been debating that question for decades. I like books that touch my head and my heart at the same time.
Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.
Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.
Ideas are the cheapest part of the writing. They are free. The hard part is what you do with ideas you've gathered.
It's never perfect when I write it down the first time, or the second time, or the fifth time. But it always gets better as I go over it and over it.
Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow.
A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.
I write to satisfy the story or poem or piece of fascinating research that speaks to me. To rub a sore, to resonate with joy, to answer a question no one else has satisfactorily answered for me.
Myths are stories that explain a natural phenomenon. Before humans found scientific explanations for such things as the moon and the sun and rainbows, they tried to understand them by telling stories.
My youngest son becomes an award-winning nature photographer, and I cannot resist writing poems to his pictures. My daughter loves to cook, though I do not. Yet together, we write a cookbook with fairy tales. And now a second.
I read everything aloud, novels as well as picture books. I believe the eye and ear are different listeners. So as writers, we have to please both.