Writer Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

You learn to write by doing it.

— Madeleine L'Engle

The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise.

— Madeleine L'Engle

'A Wrinkle in Time' was almost never published. You can't name a major publisher who didn't reject it.

— Madeleine L'Engle

Inspiration does not always precede the act of writing; it often follows it.

— Madeleine L'Engle

Reading is a creative activity. You have to visualize the characters, you have to hear what the voices sound like.

— Madeleine L'Engle

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you.

— Madeleine L'Engle

if a book is not good enough for a grownup, it is not good enough for a child.

— Madeleine L'Engle

With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart…

— Madeleine L'Engle

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

— Madeleine L'Engle

“One of the most helpful tools a writer has is his journals. Whenever someone asks how to become an author, I suggest…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“Because of the very nature of the world as it is today, our children receive in school a heavy load of scientific…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the…

— Madeleine L'Engle

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“Reading about the response of people in stories, plays, poems, helps us to respond more courageously and openly at our own moments…

— Madeleine L'Engle

A great piece of literature does not try to coerce you to believe it or agree with it. A great piece of…

— Madeleine L'Engle

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then…

— Madeleine L'Engle

Stories have a richness that goes way beyond fact. My writing knows more than I know. What a writer must do is…

— Madeleine L'Engle

If it's not good enough for adults, it's not good enough for children. If a book that is going to be marketed…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“We, and I think I'm speaking for many writers, don't know what it is that sometimes comes to make our books alive.…

— Madeleine L'Engle

When I have something to say that I think will be too difficult for adults, I write it in a book for…

— Madeleine L'Engle

If I have something I want to say that is too difficult for adults to swallow, then I write it in a…

— Madeleine L'Engle

We don't want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have…

— Madeleine L'Engle

It is all, as usual, paradox. I have to use what intellect I have in order to write books, but I write…

— Madeleine L'Engle

My writing knows more than I know. What a writer must do is listen to her book. It might take you where…

— Madeleine L'Engle

During the long drag of years before our youngest child went to school, my love for my family and my need to…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“I heard a famous author say once that the hardest part of writing a book was making yourself sit down at the…

— Madeleine L'Engle

anything that stretches the mind is a help to the potential author.

— Madeleine L'Engle

“Someone said, 'It's all been done before.' Yes, I agreed, but we all have to say it in our own voice.”

— Madeleine L'Engle

“A book, too, can be a star 'explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly.”

— Madeleine L'Engle

Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.

— Madeleine L'Engle

I got so discouraged, I almost stopped writing. It was my 12-year-old son who changed my mind when he said to me,…

— Madeleine L'Engle

“If I never had another book published, and it was very clear to me that this was a real possibility, I still…

— Madeleine L'Engle

One reason nearly half my books are for children is the glorious fact that the minds of children are still open to…

— Madeleine L'Engle