“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.”
EB White

“I think of myself as an enormously lucky person. I get to tell stories for a living.”
Kate DiCamillo.

“But much more vividly I remember living in the book and making up what happened every day. Making the country and the people and the things that happened I was happier than I had ever been.”
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“It’s a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.”
Gustave Flaubert

Delicious indeed! Coming across these quotes today made me think about how important it is to celebrate the joys of writing. While there are plenty of “blood, sweat, and tears” comments in my files, it’s the upbeat, inspiring words of writers who find true pleasure in their work that I cherish most.

To be taken out of yourself and transported to another world as you write — what an amazing feeling this is! I’ve seen glimpses of this as I’ve worked on my YA novel and there really is nothing like it.

To “move in an entire universe” that you’ve invented out of your own imagination is a little like flying through space. All around you, bits and pieces of yourself are whizzing by. Something you saw, a phrase that floats into your head, a beloved one whose beautiful eyes you remember, a trip to the sea, long-forgotten words of wisdom, a moment of disappointment and pain — all these are woven into a story that is a part of you and yet wholly apart from you. Magic!