Time & Perspective Quote by Cornelia Funke

A deceptively small sentence that doubles as a diagnosis of what literary life has become. Cornelia Funke is a children’s author whose work depends on young readers not as an abstract “market,” but as living co-creators of meaning: the kid who asks the weird, precise question; the classroom where a story lands differently than it does in a review. “I wish I had more time” is the tell. It’s not a lack of desire, it’s a scarcity problem, and the scarcity is structural.

The line quietly indicts the contemporary author ecosystem: deadlines, publicity cycles, touring, social media maintenance, brand-building. The author who wants to do the most culturally nourishing work - show up in schools, meet students where reading actually becomes a habit - is squeezed by the demands that monetize attention elsewhere. Funke’s phrasing stays polite, but the subtext is a trade-off between art’s public mission and the private logistics of making a living.

There’s also a strategic tenderness here. Visiting schools isn’t just charity; it’s where authors witness the stakes of literacy in real time: which kids feel invited into stories, which don’t, and how imagination competes with screens, testing regimes, and budget cuts. By framing it as a wish rather than a complaint, Funke preserves warmth while signaling urgency: the connection between books and young readers is precious, and our systems don’t make enough room for it.