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" 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.' "

Patricia MacLachlan

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

Patricia MacLachlan

" 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. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything, really, it has so much to do with what I'm going through personally or a problem I'm trying to work out. When I wrote my novel 'Baby,' my three children had all just gone out the door. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" 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. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" 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. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" I have great editors, and I always have. Somehow, great editors ask the right questions or pose things to you that get you to write better. It's a dance between you, your characters, and your editor. "

Patricia MacLachlan

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

Patricia MacLachlan

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

Patricia MacLachlan

" Looking back, I see that I write books about brothers and sisters, about what makes up a family, what works and what is nurturing. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" 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. "

Patricia MacLachlan

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

Patricia MacLachlan

" My mother, as a girl, had remembered this woman from Maine, someone who was part of the extended family somehow, and I recall her talking about this great, risk-taking woman. There are the most amazing, heroic stories in everybody's lives. "

Patricia MacLachlan

" I can always tell when I'm about to start writing. I go through cycles in reading. When I'm beginning to start to write something, I start reading what I think of as good literature. I read things with wonderful language. "

Patricia MacLachlan