Rodman Philbrick

“As a young, ambitious novelist, writing for kids never crossed my mind.”

“Unfortunately, the author of a book pretty much gives up control of the story when the producers take over a book to make it into a movie.”

“As a writer, I'm convinced that encouraging children to write fiction, to hook into that marvelous machine called the imagination, has to be good for everyone.”

“The only real treasure is in your head. Memories are better than diamonds and nobody can steal them from you”

“I believe that we have the ability to change our lives using our imaginations. Imagination is a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets.”

“I wanted to make the world of 'The Last Book in the Universe' as real as possible, so I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I decided the world would be a very different place, but people would be pretty much the same.”

“I think in some ways it's like that for all of us, living with the ghosts of things that used to be, or never were. We're all of us haunted by yesterday, and we got no choice but to keep marching into our tomorrows.Keep marching, boys and girls. Keep marching.”

“I assumed 'Freak the Mighty' was probably too weird and melodramatic to find a publisher. I certainly never expected the book to have a profound influence on my career as a writer, but indeed it has.”

“You can't mess around with young readers - you have to cut straight to the heart of the story. The character can be complex, the plot can have some surprises, but the emotions have to be clear.”

“I have vivid memories of junior high school. I didn't quite know how to deal with kids and make friends and all of that. If you talked to people who knew me at the time, they'd think I was a popular kid in school. But boy, I didn't feel that.”

“As a kid, books were my great escape and my salvation.”

“I was never forced to write. At least, I was never forced or even encouraged to write fiction. Creative writing wasn't in the curriculum at my school when I was in sixth grade.”