Quotes by E. L. Konigsburg

About E. L. Konigsburg:

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Art comes from a visceral need and is usually generated by something I have seen; writing comes from something that happens in my head and my heart.

E. L. Konigsburg

I think it's important to experience kindness so that you can experience it more in the future. I believe that patterns of emotional behavior are set down before adolescence. And I think that if you have not observed kindness, you will not recognize ...

E. L. Konigsburg

I was the first one in my family to go away to college. I came from a small town where there was no guidance in the high school at all. It was a mill town, and I never knew anyone who made their living from the arts. When you did go away to college, ...

E. L. Konigsburg

I was born in New York City. But my family moved when I was still an infant. Except for a year and half when we lived in Youngstown, Ohio, I grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania. I graduated from high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania.

E. L. Konigsburg

Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness - self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creati...

E. L. Konigsburg

When I began writing in the mid-1960s, I thought it was not important for readers to know whether I was male or female. Also, I was a great admirer of E.B. White, so I may have thought that it would bring me luck to submit my first manuscript as 'E.L...

E. L. Konigsburg

I think most of us are outsiders. And I think that's good because it makes you question things.

E. L. Konigsburg

Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way.

E. L. Konigsburg

I get ideas for my books from people I know and what happens to them, from places I've been and what happens to me, and from things I read.

E. L. Konigsburg

After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people.

E. L. Konigsburg

Readers let me know that they like books that have more to them than meets the eye. Had they not let me know that, I never would have written 'The View From Saturday.'

E. L. Konigsburg

The essential problems remain the same... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want accep...

E. L. Konigsburg

Sometimes it takes more courage to be the passenger than to be the driver.

E. L. Konigsburg

When I was in college at Carnegie Mellon, I wanted to be a chemist. So I became one. I worked in a laboratory and went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. Then I taught science at a private girls' school. I had three children and wait...

E. L. Konigsburg

Author Bio

  • NameE. L. Konigsburg
  • DescriptionAmerican writer and illustrator
  • AliasesElaine Lobl Konigsburg
  • BornFebruary 10, 1930
  • DiedApril 19, 2013
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • WorksFrom The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; The View From Saturday
  • AwardsNewbery Medal