In her moving tribute to her dear friend, the late Eva Ibbotson, in The Horn Book magazine (May/June 2011), Laura Amy Schlitz quotes from an encouraging letter Eva sent to her:
" You have to...most truly you have to grow a protective skin round yourself and what you write. Writing is a love affair between you and the book - it isn't necessarily a happy one, or even one with a successful conclusion; you can write a book, be absorbed in it, and fail. But oh God...don't let them blow out the candle."
