As Elmore Leonard Says, I Write To

At The Thought Of Being Eaten By Rats, Despereaux Forgot About Being Brave. He Forgot About Not Being A Disappointment. He Felt Himself Heading Into Another Faint. But His Mother, Who Had An Excellent Sense Of Dramatic Timing, Beat Him To It; She Executed A Beautiful, Flawless Swoon, Landing Right At Despereaux's Feet.

He Was Reading From The Beginning So That He Could Get To The End, Where The Reader Was Assured That The Knight And The Fair Maiden Lived Together Happily Ever After.

There's A Notion Of Art In This Country That You Have To Be Nutty Or Special Or "called" In Order To Be An Artist. I Believe The Questions Everyone Should Ask Themselves Are, "do You Want To Do It? Are You Willing To Do It Poorly? Are You Willing To Do The Work Of Doing It? Are You Willing To Persist When Everybody Tells You It's Silly?" If You're Willing To Do That, Then You Can Do It.

Reader, You Must Know That An Interesting Fate (sometimes Involving Rats, Sometimes Not) Awaits Almost Everyone, Mouse Or Man, Who Does Not Conform.

In The Beginning Of The Book, The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane, Edward Is More Enamored Of Himself Than He Is Of Anybody Else. He's A Very Fine Rabbit; He's Been Constructed Incredibly Well, And He Has A Wardrobe Of Amazing Clothing. He's Arrogant, And He Doesn't Care Whether Abilene Loves Him Or Not. As The Journey Progresses, As He Gets Passed From Hand To Hand, He Learns What It Means To Love. He Gets More And More Bedraggled, And His Clothing Is Lost; Yet He Becomes Finer In Soul And Heart Than He Was At The Beginning Of The Journey.