"And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."

I just learned that Madeleine L'Engle died on Friday. What sad news.

A Wrinkle in Time is one of the first books I remember just totally falling in love with. I read it again last summer as part of my "classic books of my childhood" reading campaign, and it still thrilled me. She wrote with such imagination and complexity and heart. I think her work is summed up nicely with the quote I used for this post's title. She said, "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." Beautiful.

There's a terrific article about her on Salon.com.

Perhaps it's time for a L'Engle reading marathon.