Photo by Carolyn Kraft
It’s April again and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. My apologies to anyone looking for a post on whether or not creamed honey will finally be classified as an alternative fuel. (You’ll have to wait for my review later this year of the new Nissan Mecha-Grizzly.)
This post is about the 21st Annual LA Times Festival of Books, held last weekend on the beautiful brick and stone USC campus. Saturday was rainy and Sunday was sunny and both days were very well-attended. Here are some of the intriguing things the authors I saw had to say:
“Magical realism reminds us as human beings that there is hope and beauty out there.”
“If you believe along with the narrator that the [fantastical] things happening are true, it’s not magical realism. If you don’t, then it is.”
“Writers are often reacting to things that frustrate them about their other writing.”
“YA [literature] is so wide open. You can go anywhere you want. There’s no box you have to fit into.”
“When people have complimented me on my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained. When people have criticized my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained.”
“What’s cool about art is the exceptions.”
“I don’t really care what genre means. The work can take care of itself.”
“When you begin a novel you feel like a bit of a fraud. The more you do it the more faith you have in the viability of the world you’re creating.”
“I think about readers after the fact. It’s not what drives me to do the work. I don’t think it’s healthy to think about it.”
“Fiction, art, always has to be life plus.”
“Donald Trump is able to go for the jugular. It’s like he stole Jeb Bush’s lunch money, threw his shoes up on top of the school, and Jeb couldn’t handle it.”
“Disney told me, ‘We want a thriller, but nothing bad can happen.’ ”
“What’s special about this story? If I can’t find it, I don’t write it.”
“There’s no ‘Red Weddings’ in Middle Grade.”
“My narrator is the crotchety old man who lives inside of me.”
Photo by Carolyn Kraft
“Very rarely will someone buy your intentions. Finish the book.”
“The anxiety of not knowing where I’m going in a story is what drives me.”
“I wrote this [middle grade] book as a YA novel, but it’s not. My editor pointed this out to me.”
“Wonder isn’t about finding answers; it’s about being comfortable with the questions.”
“There are as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive.”
“Teenagers: Maximum personal responsibility with absolutely no personal power.”
“Some 17-year-olds are 13 in their heads and some 17-year-olds are 25 in their heads. And they have to hang out together.”
“The only thing worse than writing is not writing.”
“Every first draft I go through this question: ‘I don’t know how to do this.’ ”
“If you’re a young person and you have the choice between writing and having an experience, have the experience.”
WHO SAID THIS STUFF (in order): Sean McGinty, Shaun David Hutchinson, Peter Rock, McGinty, Rock, McGinty, Patrick DeWitt, Karl Taro Greenfeld, DeWitt, Greenfeld, Dee Dee Myers, Ridley Pearson, Soman Chainani, M.A. Larson, Tahereh Mafi, Larson, Chainani, Mafi, Leigh Ann Henion, Claire Bidwell Smith, Jeff Garvin, Jesse Andrews, Garvin, Don Calame, Aaron Hartzler