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.

S. E. Hinton

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

Home Use Us

Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff.

S. E. Hinton

Work Good Your

'The Outsiders' died on the vine being sold as a drugstore paperback.

S. E. Hinton

Vine T Store

Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.

S. E. Hinton

Movies T Ruin

My husband and I get along great. We're both introverts, and it's hard to make new friends.

S. E. Hinton

Great Us T

I could write and help a lot of kids, or teach and help a few and go nuts.

S. E. Hinton

Write Teach Tea

I think that 'The Outsiders' was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it.

S. E. Hinton

Written Write Us

I go straight from thinking about my narrator to being him.

S. E. Hinton

Thinking Think Thin

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.

S. E. Hinton

Experience Writer Write

My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.

S. E. Hinton

Time Ways Way

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.

S. E. Hinton

Time Life Your

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.

S. E. Hinton

Writer Write Wit

If you enjoy reading something, read it.

S. E. Hinton

You Thing Thin

I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.

S. E. Hinton

Money Imagination Write

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.

S. E. Hinton

Experience York Wrote

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.

S. E. Hinton

Teen Age Zoo

My goal from being a child was to have a happy home life.

S. E. Hinton

Life Home T

'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.

S. E. Hinton

Teen Great Art

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.

S. E. Hinton

Your You Writing

When I see a movie with someone it's kind of uncomfortable.

S. E. Hinton

Wit Uncomfortable UN

I grew up here and my friends are here. There's nothing wrong with here.

S. E. Hinton

I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.

S. E. Hinton

My mother was physically and emotionally abusive. My father was an extremely cold man.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

I find it to be easier to write from a man's point of view.

S. E. Hinton

Naturally, everything boils down to relationships in my books.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

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.

S. E. Hinton

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

S. E. Hinton

I always try to write the best I can.

S. E. Hinton