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A Man I Know Who Writes And Aspires To Be A Novelist Does Very Little Reading, And He's Not That Successful. But I Think It's Because He's Like The Kid Who Wants To Be A Ballplayer And Never Goes To The Ballpark Or Tries To Hit A Ball. So I'd Say Reading Is The Most Important Thing That I Do, Besides The Actual Writing. I'm Always Asking As I Read, "how Did The Writer Do This? Why Do I Suddenly Have Tears In My Eyes? Why Am I Crying?"

-Robert Cormier

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A Man I Know

Robert Cormier

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A Man I Know Who Writes And Aspires To Be A Novelist Does Very Little Reading, And He's Not That Successful. But I Think It's Because He's Like The Kid Who Wants To Be A Ballplayer And Never Goes To The Ballpark Or Tries To Hit A Ball. So I'd Say Reading Is The Most Important Thing That I Do, Besides The Actual Writing. I'm Always Asking As I Read, "how Did The Writer Do This? Why Do I Suddenly Have Tears In My Eyes? Why Am I Crying?"

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I Have Always Had A Sense That We Are All Pretty Much Alone In Life, Particularly In Adolescence.

As Much As There Is Joy In Writing, There's Always The Little Bit Of Terror To Keep You On Edge, On Your Toes. It Is A Strange Way To Occupy Yourself - To Enjoy Your Life On A Daily Basis. There Is No Guarantee That Something Great Is Going To Come Next.

Guarantees That

Occupy Yourself

I Simply Write With An Intelligent Reader In Mind. I Don't Think About How Old They Are.

The Rewriting Is Always Crucial To What I Do; Whenever I Do A Scene, I Always Tell Myself That This Isn't Final And That I Can Do It Again, Better. The Pacing Is Probably From Experience. I've Always Liked Gradual Disclosure. I Keep Thinking Of My Rubber-band Theory. You Have A Rubber Band That You Keep Pulling And Pulling And Pulling, And Just At The Moment Of Snapping You Release It And Start Another Chapter And Start Pulling Again.

Do I Dare Disturb The Universe? Yes, I Do, I Do. I Think. Jerry Suddenly Understood The Poster--the Solitary Man On The Beach Standing Upright And Alone And Unafraid, Poised At The Moment Of Making Himself Heard And Known In The World, The Universe.

I Had My Bully, And It Was Excruciating. Not Only The Bully, But The Intimidation I Felt.

I Use A Lot Of Similes And Metaphors When I Work, Simply Because It's My Best Way Of Describing A Building Or A Scene. I'm Terrible At Describing Landscapes - Trees, Buildings. The Inanimate Things Don't Interest Me: I Always Think, "oh, No, Here Comes Another Building I Have To Describe." So I Usually Use A Simile Or Metaphor.

It Came To Me That Hell Would Not Be Fire And Smoke After All But Arctic, Everything White And Frigid. Hell Would Be Not Anger But Indifference.

I've Had Aunts And Uncles Who Not Only Haven't Read My Books But Could Hardly Believe That I Was A Writer.

You Could Reason With Someone Who Was Halfway Educated And Appeal To His Intelligence, But I Felt Helpless In The Face Of Utter Stupidity.

A Writer Must Take Risks, Defy The Odds, Be A Bit Obsessed And A Little Mad.

I Don't Think I Began To Be A Professional Writer Until I Learned My Weaknesses And What I Couldn't Do. This Forced Me To Compensate.

When People Say They Write For Themselves, That's Probably What They Do. I Will Admit That I Don't Write For Myself; I Write To Be Read. I've Got The Reader In My Mind All The Time.

They Don't Actually Want You To Do Your Own Thing, Not Unless It's Their Thing Too.

I Am Frightened By Today's World, Terrified By It. I Think That Comes Out In The Books. I'm Afraid Of Big Things. Some Of These Schools Have Three Thousand Kids, And Even The Size Of The Schools Frightens Me. Big Government Frightens Me; So Does Big Defense.

It Would Be Nice To Avoid The World, To Leave It And All Its Threats And Unhappiness. Not To Die Or Anything Like That, But To Find A Place Of Solitude And Solace.

Kids Tell Me All The Time, "i Don't Know How You Do It, But That's Us In The Book." That's The Kind Of Response You Want, And I Can't Sacrifice It For The Sake Of Somebody Worried About Censorship. You Have To Find A Way To Be Truthful And Honest.

When You Get The Ideas, That's A Thrill; When You're Writing The Book And It's Corning Out Well, That's A Thrill; When You Finish It And Other People Read It, That's A Thrill. There Are Going To Be Reviews, Of Course; Not Everyone's Going To Love It. You Feel Sort Of Naked And Vulnerable In A Way. That's Just A Minor Part Of The Process, Really. If You Can't Take That Part, You Shouldn't Be In The Business. But There Are So Many Joys To Writing.

And He Did See--that Life Was Rotten, That There Were No Heroes, Really, And That You Couldn't Trust Anybody, Not Even Yourself.

Everybody Sins, Francis. The Terrible Thing Is That We Love Our Sins. We Love The Thing That Makes Us Evil.

You Bring Up Your Children To Be Self-reliant And Independent And They Double-cross You And Become Self-reliant And Independent.

I Find That Most Books That I Don't Like Are Those In Which The Authors Have Indulged Themselves. I Can Almost Sense When They're Writing Something For Themselves.

You Hope That People Read Your Book And Say "yes, This Is The Way It Is Or Could Be." But Then You Have No Way Of Knowing Until The Reader Reads The Book. Actually, The Critical Response Doesn't Worry Me. I've Had Very Few Reviews That Have Upset Me.

I'm Not A Reader Of Young Adult Fiction For The Simple Reason That These Novelists Are Writing For Adolescents, So They Are Not Writing For Me.

Salinger Is Such A Terrific Writer; He Did So Many Great Things. He Is One Of Those Writers That I Still Reread, Simply Because He Makes Me See The Possibilities And Makes Me Feel Like Writing. There Are Certain Writers Who Put You In The Mood To Write. In The Way A Whiff Of A Cigar Will Bring Back Memories Of A Ballgame On A Saturday Afternoon, Reading Salinger Makes Me Want To Get To The Typewriter.

He Hated To Think Of His Own Life Stretching Ahead Of Him That Way, A Long Succession Of Days And Nights That Were Fine - Not Good, Not Bad, Not Great, Not Lousy, Not Exciting, Not Anything.

I Read A Lot Of Detective Stories Because They Always Deliver. They Give You A Beginning, A Middle, And An End - A Resolution. The Modern Novels I Read Don't Always Deliver Because I'm Looking Essentially For A Story. As In Shakespeare, "the Play's The Thing." In Particular I Read Detective Stories For Pacing, Plot And Suspense.

I Sometimes Get Tired Because I Can Seldom Read A Book For Pleasure. I'm Like The Play Reviewer Who Happens To Go To A Play On An Off Day And Can't Help But View It Critically.

You Seldom Get A Censorship Attempt From A 14-year-old Boy. It's The Adults Who Get Upset.

I Take Real People And Put Them In Extraordinary Situations.

I Don't Like To Think In Terms Of Writing Ten Or Twelve Pages A Day. Usually I'm Writing A Scene, And It's Always With The Idea, "i Wonder What Is Going To Happen." Or Sometimes I Write About Something That Affected Me Emotionally The Day Before And That I Don't Want To Lose. I'm Very Unorganized At First; But Finally It Comes Into A Structure Where Consciously I'm Working On A Novel Per Se.

I'm Always Telling Myself As I Write That I'm Not Really Writing A Novel; I'm Just Going To Fool Around With A Character Or An Idea.

My Dream Was To Be Known As A Writer And To Be Able To Produce At Least One Book That Would Be Read By People. That Dream Came True With The Publication Of My First Novel - And All The Rest Has Been A Sweet Bonus.

I Write Very Tightly, And My Big Fear Is Boring People. I Want Them To Read Quickly, Stopped In Their Tracks. I Resist Indulging Myself.

A Terrific Sadness Swept Over Jerry. As If Somebody Had Died. The Way He Felt Standing In The Cemetry That Day They Buried His Mother. And Nothing You Could Do About It.

It's Amazing That The Heart Makes No Noise When It Cracks.

A New Sickness Invaded Jerry, The Sickness Of Knowing What He Had Become, Another Animal, Another Beast, Another Violent Person In A Violent World, Inflicting Damage, Not Disturbing The Universe But Damaging It.

He Was Swept With A Sadness, A Sadness Deep And Penetrating, Leaving Him Desolate Like Someone Washed Up On A Beach, A Lone Survivor In A World Full Of Strangers.

A Man I Know Who Writes And Aspires To Be A Novelist Does Very Little Reading, And He's Not That Successful. But I Think It's Because He's Like The Kid Who Wants To Be A Ballplayer And Never Goes To The Ballpark Or Tries To Hit A Ball. So I'd Say Reading Is The Most Important Thing That I Do, Besides The Actual Writing. I'm Always Asking As I Read, "how Did The Writer Do This? Why Do I Suddenly Have Tears In My Eyes? Why Am I Crying?"

The Earliest Influence On Me Was The Movies Of The Thirties When I Was Growing Up. Those Were Stories. If You Look At Them Now, You See The Development Of Character And The Twists Of Plot; But Essentially They Told Stories. My Mother Didn't Go To The Movies Because Of A Religious Promise She Made Early In Her Life, And I Used To Go To Movies And Come Home And Tell Her The Plots Of Those Old Warner Brothers/james Cagney Movies, The Old Romantic Love Stories. Through These Movies That Had Real Characters, I Absorbed Drama, Sense Of Pacing, And Plot.

There Are No Taboos. Every Topic Is Open, However Shocking. It Is The Way That The Topics Are Handled That's Important, And That Applies Whether It Is A 15-year-old Who Is Reading Your Book Or Someone Who Is 55.

Writing, Even Though It's Hard Work, Is Really A Joy When You Get These Characters To Come Alive. It's Hard To Trace Where They Come From. I Can't Say That I Am Sitting Here One Night At Nine O'clock And That A Character Occurs To Me. The Magic For Me Happens At The Typewriter.

I Can't Remember A Time When I Wasn't Trying To Get Something Down On Paper.

Don't Miss The Bus, Boy. You're Missing A Lot Of Things In The World, Better Not Miss That Bus.

It Doesn't Matter How Big The Body, It's What You Do With It.

There Are Moments That Stop The Heart, That Catch The Breath, That Halt The Beat Of Blood In Your Veins, And You Are Suspended In Time, Held Between Life And Death, And You Wait For Something To Bring You Back Again.

It Would Be The Death Of All Creativity For Me If I Had To Sit There And Be Concerned With The Sensibilities Of A Fourteen-year-old Kid. Some Fourteen-year-olds Would Revel In The Book, And Some Would Be Very Sensitive To It, So You Can't Afford To Worry About That. What I Worry About Is Good Taste And Getting My Message Across By Whatever Means I Can.

A Novel Must Work As A Story Because No One's Going To Get To The Other Themes If You Don't Entertain The Reader. But I Like To Have Another Layer Of Meaning, Although You Can Read The Book On One Level And Not Bother With That Other Layer.

You Have To Accept The Critical Reviews If They Treat You With Respect. Actually, It's One Person's Opinion. So, It's A Concern But Not An Overriding One, And I Don't Stay Up Nights Worrying About Reviews. But There Are Certain People I Respect Who I Hope Will Like A Book.

Family Life Was Wonderful. The Streets Were Bleak. The Playgrounds Were Bleak. But Home Was Always Warm. My Mother And Father Had A Great Relationship. I Always Felt 'safe' There.

The Beautiful Part Of Writing Is That You Don't Have To Get It Right The First Time, Unlike, Say, A Brain Surgeon. You Can Always Do It Better, Find The Exact Word, The Apt Phrase, The Leaping Simile.

Affection Is One Of The Most Neglected Words In The English Language, That People Throw The Word Love Around Like Confetti When They Mean Affection.

When I Write, I Never Think Of Segments As Chapters; I Think Of Them As Scenes. I Always Visualize Them In My Mind. Then I Try To Get The Scene Down On Paper As Closely As I Can. That's The One Thing That Readers Don't See - What You Have In Your Mind. The Reader Can Only See What You Get On The Page.

...pain Reaches A Certain Point And Does Not Get Worse But Remains In All Its Intensity And You Can Survive It.

There Is Very Little That Is Accidental In My Work. I Believe In Serendipity For Developments Of Plot, But The Actual Writing Is Arrived At By Very Hard Work. The Joy Of Writing Doesn't Mean That You Don't Get The Backaches And Headaches And The Days When It's Not Coming.

That's What Archie Did - Built A House Nobody Could Anticipate A Need For, Except Himself, A House That Was Invisible To Everyone Else.

I'm Weary Of The Battle. But A Tired Fighter Can Still Be A Fighter.

Archie Became Absolutely Still, Afraid That The Rapid Beating Of His Heart Might Betray His Sudden Knowledge, The Proof Of What He'd Always Suspected, Not Only Of Brother Leon But Most Grownups, Most Adults: They Were Vulnerable, Running Scared, Open To Invasion.

We All Start Out With The Same Alphabet. We Are All Unique. Talent Is Not The Most Important Thing --- Discipline And Dedication Are. Craft Can Be Learned But Desire And Longing Are Innate. Despite The Demands Of School And Just Being Young, Try To Write Something Every Day --- A Description, A Captured Emotion, A Simile, A Metaphor. Read, For Crying Out Loud! A Writer Must Read The Way A Ball Player Must Go To The Ballfield Every Day To Practice. Everything Is Possible In This World Of Ours--- And So's Publication.

I Have Lived A Thousand Lives Lost Within The Pages Of A Book.

Cities Fell. Earth Opened. Planets Tilted. Stars Plummeted. And The Awful Silence.

I Don't Mean To Be Insolent. I'm Truthful. I Tell The Truth And The Truth Sometimes Hurts. For Instance, You Have Bad Breath, Lieutenant. I Can Smell It From Here. It Must Offend A Lot Of People. That's The Truth. But How Many People Have Told You That? Instead, They Either Lie Or Try To Avoid Your Company.

People Always Ask Me About The Role Models That I'm Providing For Kids, And I Say I Can't Be Concerned With That. I'm Not Worrying About Corrupting Youth. I'm Worrying About Writing Realistically And Truthfully To Affect The Reader.

The Possibility That Hope Comes Out Of Hopelessness And That The Opposite Of Things Carry The Seeds Of Birth - Love Out Of Hate, Good Out Of Evil. Didn't Flowers Grow Out Of Dirt?

He Was Intrigued By The Power Of Words, Not The Literary Words That Filled The Books In The Library But The Sharp, Staccato Words That Went Into The Writing Of News Stories. Words That Went For The Jugular. Active Verbs That Danced And Raced On The Page.

Why Did The Wise Guys Always Accuse Other People Of Being Wise Guys?

We Often Think That Tragedies Happen Because Of Great Earthquakes In People's Lives. I Think They Sometimes Occur Because Of Small Things That Become Obsessive To A Particular Person.

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