Once I knew I wanted to tell stories for kids,
I went back to college, and there was a great
writer teaching at my school.
His name was David Foster Wallace, and he
was a fantastic novelist.
And I took a fiction course and a nonfiction
course with him, and when I was applying for
the fiction course, I said I wanted to write
for kids, and he said, “I have no idea how
to write for kids.
I don't know if this class is going to help
you.”
I said, “No, you know what, like I know
how to talk to kids.
That part is fine.
I just want to know how to write.”
Because I do think that art for kids is the
same as art for adults in terms of the standards
it should be held to.
There's a difference in terms of the experience
our audience has.
But the underlying rules – they're the same.
You just want to know how to write.
You want to know how to get to the truth of
the matter.
And a child's truth is going to be different
from an adult's truth, but it's not a lesser
truth.
And the techniques that you can use to convey
that truth are the same as the ones you can
use in adult literature.
You just have to – you just have to speak
to a kid's experience.
And to me, being with kids and talking to
them has been the most important kind of piece
of my writing philosophy.
