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Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

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On the whole, stories don't write themselves.

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Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could...more

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M is for magic. All the letters are, if you put them together properly. You can make magic with them, and dreams, and, I hope, even a few surprises...

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When I was a boy, Ray Bradbury picked stories from his books of short stories he thought younger readers might like and published them as R Is for Roc...more

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There was a grumpy librarian in the library. I could tell that he was the librarian because he seemed to be made of books. I told him that we needed i...more

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October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he wo...more

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The irritating question they ask us -- us being writers -- is: "Where do you get your ideas?"

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People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and ...more

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As we write we summon little demons.

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Richard put away the Narnia books, convinced, sadly, that they were an allegory; that an author (whom he had trusted) had been attempting to slip some...more

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Some people have great ideas maybe once or twice in their life, and then they discover electricity or fire or outer space or something. I mean, the ki...more

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The boy was a model pupil, forgettable and easily forgotten, and he sent much of his spare time in the back of the English class where there were shel...more

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We who make stories know that we tell lies for a living. But they are good lies that say true things, and we owe it to our readers to build them as be...more

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We should do our best to satisfy your interests in stories and books and the world. There are libraries.