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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.

-Robert Cormier

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I Read A Lot

Robert Cormier

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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Guarantees That

Occupy Yourself

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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

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