Children's author Madeline L'Engle died today. She wrote Wrinkle In Time and Circle of Light and so many other wise and beautiful books that children could read and adults needed to. In memory of her I looked up quotes of hers on the internet tonight. I know I didn't get them all, but these are some I loved. The last is my favorite. and the one that rings most truly for me today is the one about vulnerability. It reminds me of Dorothy Satten's saying that "I can only access my strength to the extent that I embrace my vulnerability."


Madeline L'Engle wrote:


“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children"

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable"

“If it can be verified, we don't need faith... Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.”

"A book comes and says, "Write me." My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never

“With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that [the books] have a life of their own, quite apart from me.”good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do what it tells me and collaborate.”

“Artistic temperament sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of creativity wrestling....When the bright angel dominates out comes a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony."

"I love my mother, not as a prisoner of atherosclerosis, but as a person; and I must love her enough to accept her as she is, now, for as long as this dwindling may take.”

“We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.”