Kate DiCamillo Quotes

It's okay to not be working all the time and to be gentle on yourself when you're not. When it feels like you're losing that inspiration - or you're in a rut, not making stuff, and your head gets all weird - be gentle on yourself. Just ease into things naturally. But you still have to ease into it: you still have to sit in the chair.

I've taken Saturdays to be the day I pull back completely. I do things that are more creative, and I've actually found that helps me when I get back into work to be more thoughtful, and I truly believe that feeding your creative soul is really important to being more analytical.

I'm always trying. Between every book, I think, 'Well now, it's time to get down to the serious stuff.'

If you're waiting for inspiration, you'll wait until you're dead.

Don't wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.

writers just kept on staring at nothing until they wrote something. Might be two minutes or two weeks.

When you're an artist, there's always a moment in your life when you think you're not inspired and instead of doing things and instead of travel and instead of falling in love, you're just depressed, so you don't move, so you don't change. So you're not inspired.

The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I'm in the middle of a battlefield.

People often get very entangled in their work and life, so de-stressing is very important to keep generating fresh ideas and provide satisfaction with one's activities.

If I have one thing on in a week, I find it very difficult to get back to work that week. I need a lot of dreaming time.

When I'm writing well, I feel happy. And when I go too long without writing, I begin to implode.

I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that.

Every movie I do, I always use things that have happened in my life. Funny moments, anything. If it just sticks out I'll write it down and use that, too, because it has to come out of you. But no one can work when they're depressed. I don't think I'd physically be able to do it if I were depressed.

I always have music playing in my studio when I design. It really gets me in the mood and allows me to focus.

I go into my workroom seven mornings a week. There will only be one or two mornings a week where it seems to be going well, but to earn those days you have to go through slow, slodgy days where your mind feels like porridge.

If you have a little sensibility or a heart, you have all the reason to be depressed once in a while. But the depression is like a motor for creation. I need a little bit of depression, a bit of acid in my stomach, to be able to create. When I'm happy, I just want to dance.

A writer who isn't writing is asking for trouble.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

I take conscious breaks for myself 'cause I like to rejuvenate and get my creative juices flowing. I also like to take my time with my creativity; I think it's important.

I have to take time occasionally to get away from the pressures of this business. If I don't, I think I would get stale, and that would show in my music.

I try to make the good days great and take something positive from the days I'm not feeling good - work on technique or something like that.

The writer's secret is not inspiration - for it is never clear where it comes from - it is his stubbornness, his patience.

I was all about my thoughts, my work, my inspiration. I was always in hair.

You feel good if you've done hard work. You sleep better. You get stuck in your head if you have too much time to think.

A manuscript under way always gave me something to do; only while enduring the aimlessness between books was I truly glum.