Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Teaching in the upper elementary grades had given me a deep appreciation of the gifts and graces that are specific to individuals with ten or eleven years of experience as human beings. It is, I think, a magical time - when so much has been learned, but not yet enough to entirely extinguish the magical reach and freedom of early childhood.Collection: Experience
Writing for children hadn't occurred to me when I was younger, but nine years of teaching in the upper elementary grades had given me a deep appreciation of the gifts and graces that are specific to individuals with 10 or 11 years of experience as human beings.
Books were the window from which I looked out of a rather meager and decidedly narrow room onto a rich and wonderful universe. I loved the look and feel of books, even the smell... Libraries were treasure houses. I always entered them with a slight thrill of disbelief that all their endless riches were mine for the borrowing.
I seemed to have been born reading.
At the age of eight I became, in my own eyes at least, a writer.
I think writing is an extension of a childhood habit - the habit of entertaining oneself by taking interesting bits of reality and building upon them.
There are several peculiarities that I share with children which, like having no front teeth, are perhaps more acceptable in the very young, but which, for better or worse, seem to be a part of my makeup.
If you try to make your circle closed and exclusively yours, it never grows very much. Only a circle that has lots of room for anybody who needs it has enough spare space to hold any real magic.Collection: Real
Know all the Questions, but not the Answers Look for the Different, instead of the Same Never Walk where there's room for Running Don't do anything that can't be a GameCollection: Running
Imagination is a great thing in long dull hours, but it's a real curse in a dark alley.Collection: Real
There was that special smell made up of paper, ink, and dust; the busy hush; the endless luxury of thousands of unread books. Best of all was the eager itch of anticipation as you went out the door with your arms loaded down with books.Collection: Book
Belief in mysteries, any manner of mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.Collection: Luxury
It's such a wonderful feeling to watch a child discover that reading is a marvelous adventure rather than a chore. I know that many writers for children say they do not write specifically with a child audience in mind ... This isn't true for me. I am very aware of my audience. Sometimes I can almost see them out there reacting as I write. Sometimes I think, 'Oh, you're going to like this part.Collection: Children
Nothing's real unless you want it to be, and anything can be real if you want it to enough; so real doesn't really mean anything.Collection: Real
We all invite our own devils, and we must exorcise our own.Collection: Devil
Eleven would have been the best time. Eleven is just about the best age for almost everything.Collection: Age
The answers aren't important really... What's important is- knowing all the questions.Collection: Knowing