When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.
S. E. Hinton
Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff.
'The Outsiders' died on the vine being sold as a drugstore paperback.
Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.
My husband and I get along great. We're both introverts, and it's hard to make new friends.
I could write and help a lot of kids, or teach and help a few and go nuts.
I think that 'The Outsiders' was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it.
I go straight from thinking about my narrator to being him.
Any writer who gives a reader a pleasurable experience is doing every other writer a favor because it will make the reader want to read other books. I am all for it.
My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.
I was a 'young adult' when I wrote 'The Outsiders,' although it was not a genre at the time. It's an interesting time of life to write about, when your ideals get slammed up against reality, and you must compromise.
Since I am first of all a character writer, that character's emotions are as vivid to me as my own. I always begin with an emotion after I have established a character in my mind. I feel what they feel. I guess that is why it comes across so strongly.
If you enjoy reading something, read it.
I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.
The thing is, the Tulsa experience that I wrote about in 'The Outsiders' is closer to the universal experience than it would be if I wrote it from L.A. or New York. It's an everyman story.
More people thought I was strange because I was a teenage novelist, not because I was from Oklahoma. That's where I got the looks like I was from the zoo.
My goal from being a child was to have a happy home life.
'The Outsiders' cast in particular was a joy to be around - sweet kids, normal goofy teenagers off camera and serious artists on. They were great. I never got them mixed up with the characters, though. Each of them had his own strong personality.
I do feel that the boys are getting left out. Girls will read boys' books, but boys won't read girls' books. If you're writing for a girl, you've got most of the audience on your side anyway.
When I see a movie with someone it's kind of uncomfortable.
I grew up here and my friends are here. There's nothing wrong with here.
I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male.
Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one.
I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.
My mother was physically and emotionally abusive. My father was an extremely cold man.
When I was in high school, the genders were so separate from each other. If you weren't 'dating' somebody, you couldn't just be friends with somebody.
I grew up with my cousins, who were as close as brothers, and frankly, I didn't like what girls were expected to do. I liked horseback riding, playing football, going to rodeos. I wanted to be in jeans all the time, and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to conform to a certain standard, so I didn't.
I find it to be easier to write from a man's point of view.
Naturally, everything boils down to relationships in my books.
How a piece ends is very important to me. It's the last chance to leave an impression with the reader, the last shot at 'nailing' it. I love to write ending lines; usually, I know them first and write toward them, but if I knew how they came to me, I wouldn't tell.
When I was young, all the books were about a Mary Jane and the football player and the prom and ending up with the quiet guy and making your mom happy.
If people want to find me, they can. They'll see a middle-aged woman wandering around the grocery store, looking to see what to buy for dinner.
I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.
I always try to write the best I can.
