“When I'm following what a character does in a book I don't have to think about my own life. Where I am. Why I'm here. My moms and my brother and my old man. I can just think about the character's life and try and figure out what's gonna happen. Plus when you're in a group home you pretty much can't go anywhere, right? But when you read books you almost feel like you're out there in the world. Like you're going on this adventure right with the main character. At least, that's the way I do it. It's actually not that bad. Even if it is mad nerdy.” IfsThinkingMenWorldWayFeelsTryingDoeI CanBookCharacterHomeHappensMy OwnGroupsFiguresAdventureBrotherLike YouMomMadFollowingMy MomMy BrotherPlusOld ManMy Own LifeMain CharactersNerdy Author:Matt de la Pena
“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
“When you first quit your regular job and you become a full-time writer, you are paralyzed with free time. You have so much free time. When you are at home, you have a guitar. There's a cat. You got to find ways to create an environment when writing is like going to work. Be efficient with the hours you put into the book. So I go there the same time, every day - like 7:30 am - and I leave around 2 pm, or longer, if I have a deadline.” IfsWayWritingFirstsBookHomeJobsHoursEnvironmentCatGuitarQuittingEfficientGoing To WorkDeadlineParalyzedFree TimePms Author:Matt de la Pena
“My fear is you have to be careful as a writer to not get caught up in social media and blogging, because it can start to feed into your writing time. When you are writing a book, it's such a long journey where the payoff is way at the end, sometimes years away. The payoff of the blog post is today. You get the reinforcement, comments or "likes" immediately. It's appealing. You have to be patient with the book.” WayWritingYearsLongBookEndsSometimesTodaySocialJourneyMediaPatientCaughtCarefulSocial MediaLikesPostsCommentBe CarefulCaught UpBe PatientBlogsWriting A BookBloggingPayoffLong JourneyReinforcement Author:Matt de la Pena
“I think we all try to figure out ways to ignore the fact that life is about suffering. In the modern world, that's what we're surrounded with. We have all these little tools, such as phones and the Internet, to help us forget about suffering. Whenever you are tired, you don't have to really sit in the abyss of what it means to be alive. We always find ways to avoid it. When a ship sinks, you are sitting in it. There is no way to avoid.” ThinkingWorldWayTryingMeanLittlesFactsHelpingLife IsSufferingForgetAliveModernFiguresInternetSittingToolsTiredPhonesShipsAbyssModern World Author:Matt de la Pena
“But when you read books you almost feel like you're out there in the world. Like you're going on this adventure right with the main character. At least, that's the way I do it. It's actually not that bad. Even if it is mad nerdy.” IfsWorldWayFeelsBookCharacterAdventureLike YouMadMain CharactersNerdy Author:Matt de la Pena
“I was really drawn to spoken-word style poetry. I loved the rhythms, and for some reason, I was just drawn to this poetry as a way of expressing my feelings, because I didn't have any other outlet.” WayReasonFeelingsStyleRhythmOutletsSpoken Word Author:Matt de la Pena
