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.
Interpretation
Stories have the power to connect people and bring joy to those who share them.
In this quote, Kate DiCamillo emphasizes the profound impact that stories can have on individuals and communities. She highlights that stories not only bring joy but also foster connections among people, illustrating how the simple act of reading together can transform the experiences and relationships of everyone involved.
In practice
In a reading group, I shared a quote by Kate DiCamillo to encourage more engagement with stories.
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.
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.
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.
There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. You have to find your own way. You can get your idea from listening, looking, or imagining. Stories are everywhere. All you have to do is pay attention.
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.
I have no talents. But I do have hope. And wonder. And love. Maybe those are talents?
I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea.
Throughout my career, when I have been rejected, there was sometimes subtext, and it was this: People will not read your work because these are not universal stories.
What I felt was, if you spend your life just writing fiction, you are going to falsify your material. And the fictional form was going to force you to do things with the material, to dramatize it in a certain way. I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world that one didn't know fully.
His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.
Your business as a writer is not to illustrate virtue but to show how a fellow may move toward it or away from it.
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
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