- Discipline
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- Nov 07, 2020
Book Quotes
Why books work the way they do.
This page highlights what books can do that film can't, including slower pacing and quiet stretches, alongside a reminder that some things simply translate poorly to screen. For a companion collection, see Books.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Opportunity
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was a child and teenager I read whenever I had the opportunity, but since then I've found it hard to read as much as I'd like, children, work, and pets all providing powerful incentives to escape into a book and a practical reason why I rarely do so.
- Brave
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- Nov 07, 2020
It took a brave editor in the U.S. to sign a contract for Dancing Girls, and without her belief in the book, I'm not sure it would ever have found its way into print.
- Think
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- Nov 07, 2020
Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.
- Next
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- Nov 07, 2020
Talking about how I might write the next book is like talking about whether or not to have sex. Any dithering ruins it.
- Each Time
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- Nov 07, 2020
I never think of an entire book at once. I always just start with a very small idea. In 'Holes,' I just began with the setting; a juvenile correctional facility located in the Texas desert. Then I slowly make up the story, and rewrite it several times, and each time I rewrite it, I get new ideas, and change the old ideas around.
- Answer
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm no good at describing my books. 'Holes' has been out now for seven years, and I still can't come up with a good answer when asked what that book is about.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I actually started an adult book, worked on it for about two years, and then decided it just wasn't coming together for me, and thought I'll go back to children's books, and almost immediately I started 'Holes,' and it just seemed to take off on me.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think of a book and a play, or a book and a movie, as two separate things - I don't think of it as my novel having a new life.
- Life
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- Nov 07, 2020
'The Cardturner,' while it has bridge in it, you certainly don't need to know how to play bridge to read it. It's basically a book about relationships - between Alton and his great-uncle, and Alton and his friends, and how it changes his life.
- Never
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- Nov 07, 2020
My mother is old-fashioned; she raised us like girls from a 19th-century book. My sisters and I are known for being the most polite girls in France. My mother wanted us to be like royalty: never ever will you be caught being rude, or superficial or being a star or whatever.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020