Jane Yolen

“But wanting and getting are hard neighbors and bitter friends.”

— Jane Yolen

“The storyteller in me asks: what if? And when I try to answer that, a story begins”

— Jane Yolen

You write to be read. That is the bottom line.

— Jane Yolen

They [Fairy Tales] are talking about real emotions, telling true stories, through the medium of metaphor. People used to understand metaphor better…

— Jane Yolen

The main plot line is simple: Getting your character to the foot of the tree, getting him up the tree, and then…

— Jane Yolen

Aren't hidden doors the most alluring? The old stories point that out surely. Even the greatest heroes and heroines fall under the…

— Jane Yolen

It's never perfect when I write it down the first time, or the second time, or the fifth time. But it always…

— Jane Yolen

“Wanting to die and dying, she found were two separate things.”

— Jane Yolen

“All around the castle, a briary hedge began to grow, with thorns as sharp as barbs.”

— Jane Yolen

“And at twelve, heading for adulthood, a child fears that the way she is at that moment is all she's ever going…

— Jane Yolen

Fish are not the best authority on water.

— Jane Yolen

“Welcome to Neverland,” Peter said, as if this were supposed to be a big surprise. Darla took her hand away from his.…

— Jane Yolen

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal…

— Jane Yolen

“He unpacks his bag of tales with fingers quick as a weaver's picking the weft threads threading the warp. Watch his fingers.…

— Jane Yolen

“He wishes to be far away, either at sea or on the shore. In between, he realizes, is the most difficult of…

— Jane Yolen

“...For it began to occur to him that one way to become private was to respect another's privacy.”

— Jane Yolen

And for adults, the world of fantasy books returns to us the great words of power which, in order to be tamed,…

— Jane Yolen