E L Konigsburg Quotes

Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you.
After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people.
Art comes from a visceral need and is usually generated by something I have seen; writing comes from something that happens in my head and my heart.
Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way.
Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness - self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creating your own options.
I get ideas for my books from people I know and what happens to them, from places I've been and what happens to me, and from things I read.
I think it's important to experience kindness so that you can experience it more in the future. I believe that patterns of emotional behavior are set down before adolescence. And I think that if you have not observed kindness, you will not recognize it. You have to experience kindness in order to be kind.
I think most of us are outsiders. And I think that's good because it makes you question things.
I was born in New York City. But my family moved when I was still an infant. Except for a year and half when we lived in Youngstown, Ohio, I grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania. I graduated from high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania.
I was the first one in my family to go away to college. I came from a small town where there was no guidance in the high school at all. It was a mill town, and I never knew anyone who made their living from the arts. When you did go away to college, you went away to be something - an engineer, or a teacher, or a chemist.
Readers let me know that they like books that have more to them than meets the eye. Had they not let me know that, I never would have written 'The View From Saturday.'
The essential problems remain the same... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both.
When I began writing in the mid-1960s, I thought it was not important for readers to know whether I was male or female. Also, I was a great admirer of E.B. White, so I may have thought that it would bring me luck to submit my first manuscript as 'E.L.' But if I were starting out today, I would use my first name.
When I was in college at Carnegie Mellon, I wanted to be a chemist. So I became one. I worked in a laboratory and went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. Then I taught science at a private girls' school. I had three children and waited until all three were in school before I started writing.

Related Books

Author Profile

Votes :
Rating :
AuthorName
E. L. Konigsburg
Profession
Writer
BirthDate
10 February, 1930
DeathDate
19 April, 2013
View Profile

Share to your friends..

Related Author

Abraham Polonsky Adam Gopnik Adam Hochschild Adam Johnson Adam McKay Adam-Troy Castro Adrienne Gusoff Agnes Repplier Aimee Carter Akiva Schaffer Al Bernstein Al Feldstein Alan Cheuse Alan Lomax Alaya Dawn Johnson Alec Berg Alethea Kontis Alex Pareene Alex Shoumatoff Alex Steffen
view more

Popular Topics

Attitude Death Inspirational Life Love Motivational Nature Positive