American author (1947- )
When I write, I make discoveries about my feelings.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Writing Magic
There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Writing Magic
I don't wait for inspiration. Writing is my job.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
"Ask the Author: Gail Carson Levine", Goodreads
I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don't overlook.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Ella Enchanted
I think kids abandon stories all the time. They start stories and get frustrated or get a different, better idea. I think that it is more worthwhile to stick with a story and revise it and try to finish it than abandon ship. Revisions, for any writer, are the name of the game.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
"An interview with Gail Carson Levine", BookBrowse
Kisses were better than potions.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Fairest
You're Only the fairest when your fairest to yourself.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Fairest
When you become a teenager, you step onto a bridge. You may already be on it. The opposite shore is adulthood. Childhood lies behind. The bridge is made of wood. As you cross, it burns behind you.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Writing Magic
I had always been the hardest on myself when I drew and painted. I am not hard on myself when I write. I like what I write, so it is a much happier process.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
"An interview with Gail Carson Levine", BookBrowse
In books and in life, you need to read several pages before someone's true character is revealed.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
attributed, "5 Lessons You Can Learn from Classic Novels"
If I couldn't sleep, I could read.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Ella Enchanted
And so, with laughter and love, we lived happily ever after.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Ella Enchanted
I was born singing. Most babies cry, I sang an aria.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Fairest
I was no hero. The dearest wishes of my heart were for safety and tranquility. The world was a perilous place, wrong for the likes of me.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
I'm more interested in plot than theme, but I hope my values find their way into my stories: kindness, sympathy, effort, and humor!
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
"Ask the Author: Gail Carson Levine", Goodreads
I didn't write professionally at first. It took me nine years to get anything published. At the beginning I mostly wrote picture books, which were rejected by every children's book publisher in America. The first book of mine to be accepted for publication was ELLA ENCHANTED, and not one but two publishers wanted it. That day, April 17, 1996, was one of the happiest in my life.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
email interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, December 2000
Who judges the judge who judges wrong?
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Fairest
I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that. And I meditate, and one time when I was meditating, I started thinking, "Gee Gail, you love stories -- you read all the time. How come you never tell yourself a story?" While I should have been saying my mantra to myself, I started telling myself a story. It turned out to be an art appreciation book for kids with reproductions of famous artworks and pencil drawings that I did. I tried to get it published and was rejected wholesale.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
"An interview with Gail Carson Levine", BookBrowse
It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Ella Enchanted
To me, merely and pretty were words that had nothing to do with each other. Pretty went with miraculously, and merely belonged in another paragraph entirely.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
Fairest