“The Color Purple really floored me. That book was just incredible because I loved the language. The biggest deal of that book was that I loved the poetry of broken English. Broken English and vernacular. It just floored me that you can actually capture the way people really talked. And I also really connected to the social class element.” PeopleWayBookLanguageSocialDealsClassColorBrokenElementsIncrediblesConnectedCapturePurpleSocial ClassVernacularBroken English Author:Matt de la Pena
“The second book, which was probably more from a professional standpoint - when I read Junot Díaz's Drown, I was like, Oh my god, you can write these stories and people will actually read them beyond your own little community. This guy's book is blowing up and it seems like [he's writing about] the neighborhood that I grew up in. That was a big deal. I read that in graduate school, so that's when I was really taking writing seriously, but I didn't know you could do it. I didn't know you can actually be an author. It was a weird epiphany.” PeopleKnowsWritingLittlesBookStoriesBigsSeemsSchoolGuyCommunityDealsGrewGrew UpNeighborhoodGraduatesThis GuyBig DealStandpointEpiphanyGraduate SchoolBlowing Up Author:Matt de la Pena
“A lot of people think that they are really cool because they don't outline. In my writing group, they would say, "I will never outline. I let the characters take me." C'mon, man - I outline the story, but it's only like one page. It's a list of possible reversals in the story, like things where everything will just change because of this certain reveal or this certain action. Then I start really digging into the character because, to me, I don't care what the story is.” PeopleThinkingMenWritingCharacterStoriesCareActionCertainGroupsPagesDon't CareListsI Don't CareTake MeReally CoolDiggingOutlinesReversal Author:Matt de la Pena
“Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author in the world. I love him so much. There's one book that informs me more than The Road - it's called Suttree. That book is a huge influence on me. I'm not smart enough to emulate him, but he inspires me. He never infiltrates my writing directly. He writes incredibly intelligently about people that are marginalized.” PeopleWorldWritingBookEnoughInfluenceInspireHugeSmartMy FavoriteEmulateI Love HimMarginalized Author:Matt de la Pena
“People always think there's this huge hundred-foot-high barrier that separates doing good from doing bad. But there's not. There's nothing. There's not even a little anthill. You just take one baby step in any direction and you're already there. You've doing something awful. And your life is changed forever.” PeopleThinkingLittlesLife IsStepsForeverFeetChangedHugeBabyHundredAwfulBarriersDoing GoodBaby Steps Author:Matt de la Pena
