Writing my own stories had always been one of my dreams, but I didn't start until I was 29. I was working in a book warehouse and was assigned to the third floor where all the children's books were. For four and a half years, I spent all day, every day around children's books, and it wasn't long before I fell in love with them.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the journey of pursuing dreams and finding passion in unexpected places.
Kate DiCamillo's reflection on her late start in writing highlights that passion can evolve over time and often emerges from circumstances that may not seem directly related to one's aspirations. Despite not beginning her writing career until later in life, her experience working around children's books deeply influenced her creative journey and rekindled her love for storytelling, suggesting that it's never too late to chase your dreams.
In practice
During a motivational speech about pursuing passions, this quote can inspire others to not give up on their dreams.
If you sit down and read with your kid, either having your child read to you or you reading to your child at a regular time each day, it deepens the relationship. You don't have to talk about stuff; the story will do that work for you.
I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.
If you want to be a writer, write a little bit every day. Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.
I was lucky enough to have a mother who took me to the library - the public library - twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. And also bought me books. And also read aloud to me.
There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. You have to find your own way. You can get your idea from listening, looking, or imagining. Stories are everywhere. All you have to do is pay attention.
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.
For being different, it’s easy. But to be unique, it’s a complicated thing.
Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. Hear the music of voices, the song of birds, the mighty strains of an orchestra as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow . . . Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Glory in all the facts of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you.
When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.
I want to try to prove that at 100, I could sing as well as I was singing when I was 45 or 43. I'd like to prove that if you take care of yourself, you can actually not regret the fact that you've become an old-timer, but you can just still improve and actually get better.
Unclose your mind. You are not a prisoner. You are a bird in flight, searching the skies for dreams.
Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.