J. M. DeMatteis

“DeMatteis interview at NPR: The Roundtable (August 2010)”

“Creation Point (personal blog)”

“I'm glad the work doesn't come across as heavy-handed. I'm not trying to preach or convert, just explore interesting ideas and touch some hearts.”

“The impossible isn't a limitation, it's an invitation.”

“Follow your heart, follow your dreams. If writing is your passion, put everything you have into it. Let that passion, that joy, lead you. In the end it might not lead you to exactly the place you thought you were heading...but it will absolutely lead you someplace wonderful. And don’t let the Nay-Sayers, the Practical People, stop you or wear you down. Follow your dreams...and you can’t go wrong.”

“I’ve realized over the years that, with rare exceptions, most writer’s block isn’t writer’s block at all: It’s necessary time that allows the unconscious mind to do its deep work. The great “Ah-Ha!” moments don’t usually come at the keyboard. They come when I’m lying on the floor, staring into space (or banging my head against the wall in frustration). All of a sudden the Unconscious Camera turns on, a movie starts playing in my head-and there it is: The Big Moment. Or the Whole Damn Story. And, in many ways, I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.”

“I love kids’ fantasy...everything from L. Frank Baum to A. A. Milne … Narnia to Wonderland to Neverland. These are magical stories that nurtured me as a child and then nurtured my own children, as well. What better legacy could a writer have than to continue that wonderful tradition of imagination and insight and adventure? Comics, of course, pretty much ignore the children’s market. I’ve been obsessed, for years now, with doing some projects that could bring that level of imagination and literary and artistic quality to the comic book form.”

“As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m a Total Disnoid. Walt Disney is one of my heroes: it’s extraordinary what one man, armed only with will and imagination, accomplished. To be a part of that history, that legacy — in any small way — is really an honor.”

“I understand the most profound and simplest Truth of all: Any time any of us reaches out, any time we pour even a drop of love, compassion, simple human decency (no matter how small; how seemingly insignificant) into the sea of earthly existence — we are, each and every one of us — the being called Mercy.”