Lloyd Alexander

The idea is to give people a quick start back to recovery.

Using the device of an imaginary world allows me in some strange way to go to the central issues - it's one of many ways to express feelings about real people, about real human relationships.

Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

King Arthur was one of my heroes - I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle's cane for the sword Excalibur.

If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.

I loved all the world's mythologies.

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

There's this huge number of desperate people.

This was just a great game to watch. This is what Friday night football is all about.

My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.

I first wrote for adults, but when I started writing for young people, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life.

My concern is how we learn to be genuine human beings.

After I saved some money, I quit work and went to a local college.

My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.

It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.