Louis Sachar Thinking Quotations

I never think of an entire book at once. I always just start with a very small idea. In 'Holes,' I just began with the setting; a juvenile correctional facility located in the Texas desert. Then I slowly make up the story, and rewrite it several times, and each time I rewrite it, I get new ideas, and change the old ideas around.

I think of a book and a play, or a book and a movie, as two separate things - I don't think of it as my novel having a new life.

Not counting 'Small Steps,' I think 'Holes' is my best book, in terms of plot, and setting, and the way the story revealed itself. It hasn't changed my life, other than that I have more money than I did before I wrote it. I'm still too close to 'Small Steps' to compare it to 'Holes.'

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.

I'm not stupid. I know everybody thinks I am. I just don't like answering their questions.

In a way, it made him sad. He couldn't help but think that a hundred times zero was still nothing.

When I turned the corner, I saw Toni waving at me from the elevator. I think I've already told you how it made me feel to see her smile and wave at me. You can have your sunsets and waterfalls. If a piano were to suddenly fall on my head, that's the image I'd want forever engraved in my mind. —Alton Richard