RIP: Madeline L'Engle

Madeline L'Engle has passed away at 88. A Wrinkle in Time is one of those books that shaped our youth and has survived generations. Below is an excerpt from her acceptance speech for the Newbery award:

Do I mean, then, that an author should sit around like a phony Zen Buddhist
in his pad, drinking endless cups of espresso coffee and waiting for inspiration
to descend upon him? That isn’t the way the writer works, either. I heard a
famous author say once that the hardest part of writing a book was making
yourself sit down at the typewriter. I know what he meant. Unless a writer works
constantly to improve and refine the tools of his trade they will be useless
instruments if and when the moment of inspiration, of revelation, does come.
This is the moment when a writer is spoken through, the moment that a writer
must accept with gratitude and humility, and then attempt, as best he can, to
communicate to others.