1. Write every day2. Write what interests you.3. Write for the child inside of you. (Or the adult, if you are writing adult books.)4. Write with honest emotion5. Be careful of being facile6. Be wary of preaching7. Be prepared for serendipity

— Jane Yolen

A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.

— Jane Yolen

A good story is [a] kind of irritant. You read it, then you cannot stop thinking about it. Eventually, your mind and heart encyst about it, and what occurs is a pearl of the soul.

— Jane Yolen

Ah,—now you think I have been lying to you, that this is only a story. It has a king in it. And while a story with Death might be true, a story with a king in it is always a fairy tale. But remember, this comes from a time when kings were as common as corn. Plant a field and you got corn. Plant a kingdom and you got a king. It is that simple.

— Jane Yolen

And at twelve, heading for adulthood, a child fears that the way she is at that moment is all she's ever going to be.

— Jane Yolen

Because though women lie when they have to and men lie all the time, the mirror always tells the truth.

— Jane Yolen

Do not expect too much from your child, and she will grow in your love... But if you push her too much, you will push her away. A child is not yours to own but to raise. She may not be what you will have her to be, but she will be what she has to be. Remember what they say, that 'Wood may remain twenty years in the water, but it is still not a fish.

— Jane Yolen

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.

— Jane Yolen

Fairy Tales always have a happy ending.' That depends... on whether you are Rumpelstiltskin or the Queen.

— Jane Yolen

Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory. A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can make a galaxy out of the chaos, can point to the fact that some people survived even as most people died. And can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks.

— Jane Yolen