Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo
Katrina Elizabeth "Kate" DiCamillo is an American writer of children's fiction for all reading levels, usually featuring animals. She is one of six people to win two Newbery Medals, recognizing her novels The Tale of Despereauxand Flora and Ulysses. Her best-known books for young children are Mercy Watson series illustrated by Chris Van Dusen...
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth25 March 1964
CityPhiladelphia, PA
thinking storyteller
I like to think of myself as a storyteller,
thinking lucky persons
I think of myself as an enormously lucky person.
heart thinking broken
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.
powerful thinking and-love
Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too.
fun thinking parent
I don't know what Alison [McGhee] thinks, but I very strongly doubt that we will ever see the parents of Bink or Gollie. However, I do think it would be fun to make Tony Fucile draw portraits of the parental units and have those portraits sitting on Bink's mantel or in Gollie's kitchen. Glowering. A little.
coffee writing thinking
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.
girl writing thinking
I was over at Alison's [McGhee], I think we were playing Scrabble. I remember we were both complaining - yeah, we sound like whiners - about how hard writing is, and how we didn't have a story to work on. Alison said, 'Why don't we work on writing something together,' and I said, 'Eh, I don't know if I could work that way.' She said, 'Well, just show up here and we'll see,' and I said, 'Well, what would it be about?' She said, 'Duh, it'd be about a tall girl and a short girl.' So I agreed to come and try it for a day.
mean thinking people
I'm in trouble if they can't, because everyone's taller than me, and if that's true, that means I can't have any friends! Alison [McGhee] and I look very much like, I was going to say Bink and Gollie, but I meant Mutt and Jeff. We look ridiculous when we walk down the street together, because she's so tall and I'm so short. But yes, tall people and short people can, and should be, friends. I, personally, like being short. I think it makes things easier.
thinking differences soldier
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?
thinking rats facts
Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.
character thinking enough
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. I wanted to be a chipmunk; I think 4'10" was the cutoff.
book thinking virtue
It's a book [Bink & Gollie] about shortness and tallness, so I think it's appropriate to discuss the virtues of shortness.
children reading thinking
It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. I think the best way for children to treasure reading is for them to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.
thinking genius
I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.