Did I ever mention that I saw Morgan Freeman while having lunch with my agent and the folks from Dorchester while in Atlanta during RWA? If I didn’t, I am now, and let me tell you that he is a handsome gentleman who is much better looking in real life than in the movies. Here’s a fantastic interview with him, in which he says: The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we’ll do it for nothing. That’s a basic fact – you gotta do it.
Amen.
Cynthia Rylant is simply one of my favorite authors of children’s books ever. Here are two interviews with her—here and here:
People who feel that pull to write will sometimes distract themselves with reading all the books about what’s trendy, what’s being bought in New York. Or they will go to all the conferences to figure out some way to plug in, some trick, some magic key. And as they’re busy doing this, they sometimes simply forget to sit at home and read fine writing. Because I do think it’s like preachers who learn to preach from other preachers. There’s a certain cadence, a certain rhythm, there’s a certain buildup to those alleluias, to get those people to flock down the aisles of a church. And any young man or woman who’s raised in that environment has an innate sense of how that works.
Or even better, this:
When children ask me how to become better writers, I always tell them to go out and play. Sometimes you just miss way too much sitting in front of a table with a blank sheet of paper in front of you. It’s really important to just live life and wait for inspiration and write when you heart – or your humor – moves you to.