From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

by E.L. Konigsburg

“Of course. We don’t have to skip learning something about everything. We just won’t learn everything about everything.

I thought that artists don’t become famous until after they’re dead. Like mummies.”

“Yeah, I guess homesickness is like sucking your thumb. It’s what happens when you’re not very sure of yourself.”

I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”