“The way that the stories go in the Snicket books is just the way stories naturally go to me. They're full of misery, and yet the misery ends up being slightly hilarious. And in terms of the warnings on the back of the books, that really started as an honest assessment of their marketability.” WayBookEndsStoriesTermHonestMiseryWarningAssessmentSnicketMarketability Author:Daniel Handler
“I'd finished the first two [books] and they were going to to be published, and [editor] said, "We need you to write a summary that will drive people to these books." And it took forever. I couldn't think of a thing to say. I looked at the back of other children's books that were full of giddy praise and corny rhetorical questions, you know, "Will she have a better time at summer camp than she thinks?" "How will she escape from the troll's dungeon?" All these terrible, terrible summaries of books, and I just couldn't.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsWritingFirstsChildrenSaidTwoBookForeverTerribleSummerPraiseFinishedEditorsCampsCornyNeed YouChildren's BooksDungeonsTrollRhetoricalSummaryGiddySummer CampRhetorical Question Author:Daniel Handler
“I was in a pharmacy and I saw the warnings on the backs of poisonous substances, and I thought, "Well, that's what I can do." So I wrote a list of ingredients in the book, and warnings that they shouldn't consume those ingredients. The editor and the publisher thought that it was a great way to go in terms of reverse psychology, but it honestly hadn't occurred to me that it was reverse psychology. I just thought that it was sort of an honest assessment making clear that if you were timid or easily disturbed, you could turn away.” IfsWayWellsI CanBookTurnsTermCan DoClearPsychologySawsHonestListsHonestlySubstanceIngredientsEditorsWarningReversePublishersDisturbedAssessmentPoisonousPharmacyReverse Psychology Author:Daniel Handler
“I love meeting people who have absolutely no sense of irony. It's really fascinating to imagine what it would be like to go through life without understanding even the most basic of ironies.” PeopleWould BeUnderstandingImagineMeetingsIronyFascinating Author:Daniel Handler
“So every so often, when I meet someone who's honestly appalled by my books and doesn't understand why they would be attractive to people... I find such people sort of charming, even though they usually don't like me.” PeopleBookWould BeHonestlyLike MeAttractiveCharmingDon't Like Me Author:Daniel Handler
“I'm always loath to make generalizations about what is for children and what isn't. Certainly children's literature as a genre has some restrictions, so certain things will never pop up in a Snicket book. But I didn't know anything about writing for children when I started - this is the theme of naïveté creeping up on us once more - and I sort of still don't, and I'm happy that adults are reading them as well as children.” KnowsWritingWellsChildrenStillsBookCertainReadingLiteratureAdultsPopsGenreThemeRestrictionGeneralizationVetsChildren's LiteratureSnicket Author:Daniel Handler
“I think there are probably just as many adults who would miss the humor of my books, if not more, as there are children.” IfsThinkingChildrenBookMissingAdults Author:Daniel Handler
“The Basic Eight and Watch Your Mouth both have first-person voices, and I ended up investigating those voices and investing so much in them that I think many people took them more seriously than they ought to have.” PeopleThinkingFirstsPersonsVoiceWatchesOughtMouthsInvestingEightFirst PersonInvestigating Author:Daniel Handler
“With the publishing of The Basic Eight, it was often assumed that I was really immature and callow, and with the publishing of Watch Your Mouth, it was assumed that I was oversexualized, and with Lemony Snicket, it's often assumed that I'm erudite and depressed. But all the voices more or less came naturally to me.” VoiceWatchesMouthsEightPublishingImmatureEruditeSnicket Author:Daniel Handler
“I like to think that I get better and better as a writer, but it seems pretty easy to me to slip on disguises of various people.” PeopleThinkingSeemsEasyVariousGet BetterSlipsDisguise Author:Daniel Handler
“If I were to say, "Yes, I am a fascinating, erudite person," what would that say about me? I don't know.” IfsKnowsPersonsFascinatingErudite Author:Daniel Handler
“I've never had a musical career. So I think it's been unaffected. I play the accordion. In terms of thinking of it as a musical career, I think it's sort of like calling yourself an astronaut because you have a shiny suit.” ThinkingPlayTermCareersCallingMusicalSuitsAstronautAccordions Author:Daniel Handler
“I'm not very good at the accordion. If I played guitar, I wouldn't be on anyone's album. But because I play the accordion and no one else does, I end up doing strange things.” IfsDoeEndsPlayStrangeGuitarVery GoodAlbumsStrange ThingsAccordions Author:Daniel Handler
“The Edith Head Trio, I would say, would be even less of a musical career than playing the accordion, particularly because I played the accordion in The Edith Head Trio. I'm very impressed by your Googling. The Edith Head Trio and another band, Tzamboni, were two bands I was in after college that played at tiny clubs to little acclaim. Our Gypsy tango version of "When Doves Cry" was our biggest hit.But we were not destined for greatness.” LittlesTwoWould BeCareersCryGreatnessCollegeBandMusicalClubsTinyVersionsImpressedDestinedDoveGypsyTangoAcclaimTriosAccordionsDestined For Greatness Author:Daniel Handler
“I was once almost forced off the stage at a large chain bookstore that shall remain nameless, because she introduced me as Lemony Snicket, and I immediately interrupted her and said, "Oh no, Lemony Snicket isn't here," and then she tried to cancel the event right then and there.” SaidStageEventsChainsBookstoresInterruptedNamelessSnicket Author:Daniel Handler
“Occasionally there are parents who say, "I brought my child so he or she could learn what the career of a writer is like, and you did this long theatrical performance instead, and I'm very disappointed."” ChildrenLongParentCareersPerformancesMy ChildrenDisappointedTheatrical Author:Daniel Handler
“I can't imagine why you would want to take your child to see what the career of a writer is like, because it mostly consists of sitting in a room typing, or going to the library and looking something up. Those are not exciting things to watch.” WantChildrenI CanRoomsCareersWatchesImagineSittingExcitingOur ChildrenLibraryYour ChildrenTypingExciting Things Author:Daniel Handler
“The more I protest that I'm not Lemony Snicket, and that I'm Daniel Handler instead, the more it becomes clear to the audience that I am in fact Lemony Snicket, that I am in fact standing in front of them.” FactsAudienceClearFrontsStandingProtestSnicket Author:Daniel Handler
“I'd made pretty clear to the people at Paramount and Dreamworks that, if they wanted Lemony Snicket to comment, he would be completely horrified by the entire film. And as long as they understood that, it was okay. I'm not much of a fan of DVD commentaries myself, so this was my way of getting revenge, in a sense, for all the puffed-up directors and stars who talk endlessly about the self-aggrandizing minutiae of making a movie.” PeopleIfsWayLongMadeSelfWould BeWantedFilmStarsClearFansDirectorsUnderstoodOkayRevengeMy WayCommentCommentaryDvdsParamountMinutiaeSnicketDreamworksGetting Revenge Author:Daniel Handler
“I was so grateful that Lemony Snicket wasn't the worst movie ever made that I overlooked many things that might have otherwise upset me.” MadeMightWorstGratefulUpsetOverlookedSo GratefulSnicketWorst Movie Author:Daniel Handler
“I had written eight drafts of the Lemony Snicket' screenplay when this changing-of-the-guard thing happened, and I said to the new producers, "I don't think I could write any more drafts." I guess I was sort of hoping they would say, "Well that's okay, this last one is perfect." But instead, they said, "It's funny you should say that. We don't think you can write any more drafts either."” ThinkingShouldWritingWellsSaidLastsPerfectWrittenHappenedOkayEightThings HappenProducersThey SaidScreenplaysSnicket Author:Daniel Handler
“I find reading screenplays difficult, as they're only a roadmap for what a movie might end up being.” EndsMightReadingDifficultScreenplays Author:Daniel Handler
“I have this fantasy that the second movie would begin with a brief statement by all of the young actors who had played the children in the first movie, explaining how it had ruined their lives, so we would catch up with Emily Browning drinking heavily in the back of a burlesque bar, and maybe Liam Aiken would be living underneath a bridge, and then instead of the twins who played Sunny, we would just try to find the oldest woman in the world, and get an interview with her sitting in a trailer park.” WorldTryingFirstsChildrenWould BeYoungActorsFantasySittingDrinkingBarsStatementsBridgesInterviewsParksTwinsRuinedExplainingSunnyTrailersEmilyYoung ActorsLiamBurlesqueTrailer Park Author:Daniel Handler
“I don't think film is the writer's medium, and so I was interested to see what a director would do with it.” ThinkingFilmDirectorsMediums Author:Daniel Handler
“I never thought about whether film is inherently more sincere, because certainly I think if Guy Maddin had directed A Series Of Unfortunate Events, there probably could have been more of the stage-y irony that is in the books. But I was just interested to see what people would do with it, and worrying that Brad Silberling wouldn't do what I had in mind.” PeopleIfsThinkingMindHas BeensBookFilmGuyWorryStageEventsSeriesIronySincereUnfortunateCould Have BeenBradUnfortunate EventsSeries Of Unfortunate Events Author:Daniel Handler
“The trouble with talking about irony is, it's such a slippery thing that the second you start talking about it, you're a better example of it than you are an analyst.” TalkingTroubleExampleIronyAnalystsSlippery Author:Daniel Handler
“I do think of emotions as being on a circular path, so you can feel terrible and terrible and terrible, and then all of a sudden it becomes quite funny.” ThinkingFeelsEmotionPathTerrible Author:Daniel Handler
“I often can't remember which scenes are and aren't in the final product, because I saw so many different versions of the Lemony Snicket that I forget which ended up on the cutting-room floor.” DifferentRememberForgetRoomsSawsCuttingProductsSceneFinalsVersionsSnicketOften Can Author:Daniel Handler
“I wrote Rick before I was published, and I had no vision of it, really. It was just a story that occurred to me, and that put its little claws in my brain, and I wrote it, and I showed it to a couple people, and they all said, "This is ghastly."” PeopleLittlesSaidStoriesBrainVisionCoupleClawsGhastly Author:Daniel Handler
“Opera was an enormous part of my childhood. My parents were both opera buffs, and they met in the box seat of an opera performance. And I also was a boy soprano, so before puberty hit, I was onstage playing a wide variety of orphans and urchins in all sorts of operas, and the sheer melodrama of their stories was just always appealing to me.” StoriesParentBoysChildhoodMetsPerformancesBoxesWideEnormousVarietySeatsOperaSheerOrphanPubertyMelodramaSopranos Author:Daniel Handler
“The idea that the curtain rises on what is often more or less a happy scene, and it will fall just a few hours later, and everyone will be dead or have gone mad... I find that kind of narrative very appealing.” KindIdeasFallHoursGoneSceneMadNarrativeCurtains Author:Daniel Handler
“When I wrote Rick, I had the idea that I would take the plot of nearly every opera and turn it into a dark film, which is something I still may do.” MayStillsIdeasFilmTurnsDarkPlotOpera Author:Daniel Handler
“When it was first optioned, I was told that the chances of The Basic Eight becoming a film were slim because no one was making teen movies, and then later, I was told that the chances were slim because there were so many teen movies, and then I was later told that the chances were slim because teen films were over. I'm not sure when the magic window of opportunity was, but perhaps it's still on the horizon.” FirstsStillsFilmOpportunityChanceMagicBecomingWindowEightNot SureHorizonSlimWindow Of Opportunity Author:Daniel Handler
“I have produced things that I would say were sincerely cheerful. But then I am reminded by other people that no one else would see them that way.” PeopleWayCheerfulSincerely Author:Daniel Handler
“Adverbs is a book about love, and I thought that was pretty cheerful, but people who are reading it now are telling me that it's actually quite dark.” PeopleBookReadingDarkCheerfulAdverbs Author:Daniel Handler
“I wrote a comedy, which hopefully [Rick director] Curtiss Clayton will bring to the screen, that I thought was the antithesis of all my work. I thought it was light and sunshiny, and Mr. Clayton reminded me that it is the story of a woman kidnapped and forced to do things against her will, which is not what most people think of as light and sunshiny.” PeopleThinkingStoriesLightComedyDirectorsScreensHopefullyAntithesisKidnapped Author:Daniel Handler
“My work is very dear to me, and certainly I have had all the emotional highs and lows that go with trying to get it to an audience. But I do have some kind of detachment that seems somewhat unusual in my trade. I'm a writer who writes every day. I don't have a period of months where I can't get anything done and I wander around tearing my hair out. When I come back from a book tour, for instance, I might have one day where I sleep late and then check my e-mail, and then go for a walk, and then the next day I'm really itching to get back at writing a story.” WritingTryingKindI CanBookDoneStoriesSeemsMightNextSleepWalksAudienceEmotionalHairMonthsPeriodsOne DayLateLowsTradeDearChecksInstanceWanderGet BackUnusualMailNext DayDetachmentHighs And LowsItchingSleep Late Author:Daniel Handler
“My general writing preface is to write an outline and then ignore about half of it, both on a micro level with the individual book, and on a macro level with the series as a whole, and that's pretty much what's happened.” WritingBookWholeIndividualLevelsHalfHappenedSeriesOutlinesMacro Author:Daniel Handler
“Like most writers, I look back on all of my finished works with utter regret, and the trouble with writing a series of novels is that you have to go back and read them, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything you've created, and then when you do that, you're faced with your own mistakes on every trick, from the wrong word in places to entirely the wrong incident.” WritingLooksMistakeNovelTroubleHavensRegretSeriesForgottenFinishedTricksIncidentsFinished WorkWrong Words Author:Daniel Handler
“One has to adopt a sort of Zen calm, in which you know you wrote the best book that you could at the time.” KnowsBookCalm Author:Daniel Handler
“I was never a fan of anything, and yet some people are fans of my books. That's a bit odd. But I like meeting them.” PeopleBookBitsFansMeetingsOdd Author:Daniel Handler
“Mostly, it's flattering to meet fans. As long as it's in a planned, professional meeting, rather than, say, someone dropping by my home, which is not as pleasant.” LongHomeFansMeetingsPleasantDroppingFlattering Author:Daniel Handler
“People worry more about girls, for a good reason: I don't think my parents thought I was going to be raped by a classmate or attacked when I was walking alone in some neighborhood. So it's not just paranoid parents.” PeopleThinkingReasonGirlParentWorryWalkingNeighborhoodParanoidClassmatesWalking Alone Author:Daniel Handler
“I think pirates, like astronauts, particularly for a boy, are always kind of worth thinking about.” ThinkingKindBoysAstronautPirate Author:Daniel Handler
“For every teenager I know, having a phone is a mixed blessing, because your parents can press a button and figure out where you are.” KnowsParentFiguresBlessingPressesPhonesTeenagerWhere You AreButtons Author:Daniel Handler
“When you start reading nonfiction books about piracy, you realize that it's actually just a history of desperate people.” PeopleBookReadingRealizingDesperateNonfictionPiracy Author:Daniel Handler
“I found powerful the idea that everything we have is, in effect, stolen from everybody else.” IdeasFoundPowerfulEffectsStolen Author:Daniel Handler
“It's funny, particularly when you're a writer and you're doing well, you have that sense of like, "Oh! My view of the world is the one that's going to be published."” WorldWellsViews Author:Daniel Handler
“When you say, "History is written by the winners," you like to think about someone who isn't you. You want to think, "Oh, that's the juggernaut I'm standing against." But you're probably part of it.” ThinkingWantWrittenStandingWinnerJuggernaut Author:Daniel Handler
