I write to satisfy the story or poem or piece of fascinating research that speaks to me. To rub a sore, to resonate with joy, to answer a question no one else has satisfactorily answered for me. Jane Yolen Read Quote
If you give up at the first rejection or the first bad review, you will never make it in publishing. Jane Yolen Read Quote
Write every day. You don’t have to write about anything specific, but you should exercise your writing muscle constantly. Jane Yolen Read Quote
Myths are stories that explain a natural phenomenon. Before humans found scientific explanations for such things as the moon and the sun and rainbows, they tried to understand them by telling stories. Jane Yolen Read Quote
I don’t care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told. Jane Yolen Read Quote
Why am I working so hard? Going for 400 books, perhaps, but who’s really counting? Jane Yolen Read Quote
My beloved husband goes through radiation, and a book of sonnets is my passionate response. And then after he dies, I write another book of poems as a farewell. The two keywords here are passion and joy. I simply have a passion for writing, and I do it with joy. Jane Yolen Read Quote
If a parent wants to talk about slavery or wants to talk about countries where bombs go off, they need to have a way – a setting – to have that conversation. And there are wonderful books out there for those kinds of conversations. Jane Yolen Read Quote
It seems like I’ve been writing since birth! I started writing poems before I got to school. I wrote the class musical in first grade – both words and music. It was about a bunch of vegetables who got together in a salad. I played the chief carrot! Jane Yolen Read Quote
While I was in junior high, I wrote an entire essay in rhyme about manufacturing in New York State. In high school, I won a Scholastic poetry contest. Jane Yolen Read Quote
