Here’s a few snippets from an afternoon with Kate DiCamillo:

About the new novel:

Interviewer: “I’ve already read Edward Tulane three times and it made me cry every time.”

Kate DiCamillo: “I know what you mean. I cried… and I’m the one who made it up.”

About writing:

“I think it is necessary for a writer to be a person that sits on the outside looking in.”

“It (writing) is like channeling. It makes you think that something is wrong with you.”

Question from the audience: How do you compare your writing with other writers?

(Note: Far be it for me to disagree with Ms. DiCamillo… even when she is soooo wrong.)

Kate DiCamillo: “Theirs is better… I’ve just been very lucky.”

“Lots of people, both children and adults, ask me, ‘where do you get your ideas?’ I think that’s a frightfully small-minded question. All you have to do is go outside and pay attention.”

About publishing (Note: I think this is the best description I have ever heard of the book publishing process): “By the time you hold a book in your hands, it’s been touched and helped along by editors, agents, copy editors, artists, designers, illustrators, marketing teams, sales people, booksellers… it’s gone through so many hearts.”

A personal note: Thanks to the very nice people at Ridgewood Public Library and their sponsor, Books, Bytes & Beyond, for the great (and really well-run) event. During the event, I overheard an adult in the room share that “meeting an author really made the experience of a book even richer.”  My son and I talked about that idea on the ride home. I’ve already confessed that I enjoy author events.  And we both loved hearing Kate DiCamillo speak today. We’d go listen to her again tomorrow if we could. But did today’s visit make the experience of her books any richer? I am happy to report that Nicholas and I both strongly agree. It does not.