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For Me, Being A Writer Was Never A Choice. I Was Born One. All Through My Childhood I Wrote Short Stories And Stuffed Them In Drawers. I Wrote On Everything. I Didn't Do My Homework So I Could Write

-Laura Hillenbrand

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For Me, Being A

Laura Hillenbrand

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For Me, Being A Writer Was Never A Choice. I Was Born One. All Through My Childhood I Wrote Short Stories And Stuffed Them In Drawers. I Wrote On Everything. I Didn't Do My Homework So I Could Write

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Since Signing With Universal, I Have Been Working Closely With Gary Ross, The Director, Producer And Screenwriter. We Have Spent Many Hours On The Phone, And I've Been Sending Him Information And Items That Have Been Useful To The Writing Process.

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What God Asks Of Men, Said [billy] Graham, Is Faith. His Invisibility Is The Truest Test Of That Faith. To Know Who Sees Him, God Makes Himself Unseen.

I Think If I Had Been Writing Fiction, Where The Work Is Entirely Dependent On The Writer's Creativity And The Potential Directions The Narrative Might Take Are Infinite, I Might Have Frozen

His Books Were The Closest Thing He Had To Furniture And He Lived In Them The Way Other Men Live In Easy Chairs.

For Me, Being A Writer Was Never A Choice. I Was Born One. All Through My Childhood I Wrote Short Stories And Stuffed Them In Drawers. I Wrote On Everything. I Didn't Do My Homework So I Could Write

People Think I Must Have Been Turning Cartwheels On The Night I Sealed The Movie Deal - Which Was Only Two Days After Sealing The Book Deal - But I Was Really Quite Terrified.

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I Just Thought I Was Empty And Now I'm Being Filled...and I Just Wanted To Keep Being Filled.

This Self-respect And Sense Of Self-worth, The Innermost Armament Of The Soul, Lies At The Heart Of Humanness; To Be Deprived Of It Is To Be Dehumanized, To Be Cleaved From, And Cast Below, Mankind.

Without Dignity, Identity Is Erased.

I Was 8 Years Old When I Went Across The Street From My House To A Fair, And They Always Had A Used Book Sale. For A Quarter I Bought A Book Called 'come On Seabiscuit.' I Loved That Book. It Stayed With Me All Those Years

It's Easy To Talk To A Horse If You Understand His Language. Horses Stay The Same From The Day They Are Born Until The Day They Die. They Are Only Changed By The Way People Treat Them.

I Identified In A Very Deep Way With The Individuals I Was Writing About Because The Theme That Runs Through This Story Is Of Extraordinary Hardship And The Will To Overcome It.

I'm Attracted To Subjects Who Overcome Tremendous Suffering And Learn To Cope Emotionally With It

I Am In An Altogether New World Now. I Can Think Of Nothing More Wonderful. It Is A Real Touch Of All That Heaven Means.

Honestly, I Expected To Get A Cold Reception Because Of My Subject Matter. But When Editors Took A Look At The Story I Had To Tell, And Saw That This Was Not A Parochial Story At All, They Really Warmed To It

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Though All Three Men Faced The Same Hardship, Their Differing Perceptions Of It Appeared To Be Shaping Their Fates. Louie And Phil's Hope Displaced Their Fear And Inspired Them To Work Toward Their Survival, And Each Success Renewed Their Physical And Emotional Vigor. Mac's Resignation Seemed To Paralyze Him And The Less He Participated In Their Efforts To Survive, The More He Slipped. Though He Did The Least, As The Days Passed, It Was He Who Faded The Most. Louie And Phil's Optimism, And Mac's Hopelessness, Were Becoming Self-fulfilling.

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Such Beauty, He Thought, Was Too Perfect To Have Come About By Mere Chance. That Day In The Center Of The Pacific Was, To Him, A Gift Crafted Deliberately, Compassionately, For Him And Phil. Joyful And Grateful In The Midst Of Slow Dying, The Two Men Bathed In That Day Until Sunset Brought Is, And Their Time In The Doldrums, To An End.

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In Terms Of Writing About Horses, I Fell Backwards Into That. I Was Intent On Getting A Ph.d., Becoming A Professor, And Writing On History But I Got Sick 14 Years Ago When I Was 19. Getting Sick Derailed That Plan Completely

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