Patricia MacLachlan Quotes & Sayings

“I don't think I do any formal research. Life is my research. I always begin with a character. I write a chapter about the character and what he or she is doing, thinking, but I don't know what the story is about yet. Plot was always my downfall until I learned that basically character and plot amount to the same thing. One grows from the other.”

“In a way, my childhood was one long bunch of pages... I read and read and read.”

“I have to write what I can write, and writing the text of a picture book is like walking a tightrope, if you ramble off... As my friend Julius Lester says, 'A picture book is the essence of an experience.'”

“I love to talk to children about making mistakes. It's important that I tell them about how I don't get it right the first time. We live in such a perfectionist society, and they see so many finished products and polished performances.”

“I think it's important to remember where I began. I know that when I talk to other writers, say, writers from the South or writers from abroad, it's where they begin as children that is important to them.”

“My inspiration for writing is all the wonderful books that I read as a child and that I still read. I think that for those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book written by someone else, we don't really get jealous, we get inspired, and that's kind of the mark of what a good writer is.”

“Being married to a psychologist, I realize that I learn more from imperfections.”

“I have great respect for children. And I have great respect for their ability as writers.”

“I never work from an outline, and often I don't know how the story will end.”

“I'm working on a bunch of things with my daughter Emily. In some ways, she's a smarter and better editor than I am.”