Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

When I'm an audience member I do not want to go and see something that I already know, I want to see something that I don't know. I want to be surprised and stimulated to think about something. I want the magic. I want to be in a situation of uncertainty; that's what excites me.

Ray Bradbury's connections to fantasy, space, cinema, to the macabre and the melancholy, were all born of his years spent running, jumping, galloping through the woods, across the fields, and down the brick-paved streets of Waukegan.

I think the secret to what Jim Henson did, ultimately, is that he understood how to cut through to the... I know this sounds corny... but the child inside of you.

That part of life is the thing that we really need to concentrate on. If you lose the way children look through their eyes at the world, it really becomes kind of a doldrum.

Magic has universal appeal. I don't believe in magic in the way that I describe in my books, but I'd love it to be real.

Before there can be wonders, there must be wonder.

The artist brain is the sensory brain: sight and sound, smell and taste, touch. These are the elements of magic, and magic is the elemental stuff of art. In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do-spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.

Books" - Snell smiled - "are a kind of magic.

The best stories infuse wonder.

Life would be very dreary if there were no magic. If the real world were only that veil of tears, I just don't think could get up in the morning.

There is that romanticized idea of what a bookstore can be, what a library can be, what a shop can be. And to me, they are that. These are places that open doors into other worlds if only you're open to them.

I have a lot of respect and love for children's books.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

Call it vanity, call it arrogant presumption, call it what you wish, but I would grope for the nearest open grave if I had no newspaper to work for, no need to search for and sometimes find the winged word that just fits, no keen wonder over what each unfolding day may bring.

Each kid is unique in what captures their attention and their passion.

There's nothing I liked visually of the period I was a child. There was no dream in it, and nothing sparkled.

I now find magic in the mundane. I'm also more creative - better able to look beyond the obvious and come up with new story angles.

I always love writing about children.

I hope people remember me as a guy who brought magic to the people. You know, pushed the boundaries of wonder.

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.

Children are the most wonderful audiences. What's struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap.

I've read up on magic, and I think it sets you free, and it gives you hope. You can explore worlds you didn't know existed. It stretches your imagination, and I like my own imagination to be stretched and also the children I'm telling the story to. It gives you a sense of wonder.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

Let the little fairy in you fly!

Everything I write comes from my childhood in one way or another. I am forever drawing on the sense of mystery and wonder and possibility that pervaded that time of my life.