You Cannot Live This Life

It Is This Language Of Values Which I Hope To Bring To My Books. . . . I Want To Bring Values To Those Who Have Not Been Valued, And I Want To Etch Those Values In Terms Of The Ideal. Young People Need Ideals Which Identify Them, And Their Lives, As Central . . . Guideposts Which Tell Them What They Can Be, Should Be, And Indeed Are.

One Of The Lessons Learned During The Vietnam War Was That The Depiction Of Wounded Soldiers, Of Coffins Stacked Higher Than Their Living Guards, Had A Negative Effect On The Viewing Public. The Military In Iraq Specifically Banned The Photographing Of Wounded Soldiers And Coffins, Thus Sanitizing This Terrible And Bloody Conflict.

What Some People Wanted Was Sometimes Too Hard To Get, And The Stress Of Trying Was Sometimes Too Hard To Deal With... Maybe Doing Well In Life Was Just Too Hard For Some People.

I Had Seen The Ballet Of Swan Lake As A Child But It Was As An Adult, When I Saw A Production Featuring Erik Bruhn, That I First Noticed How Significant A Part The Ever-present Threat Of Violence Played. This Juxtaposition Of Great Beauty And Grace With A Backdrop Of Pure Evil Stayed With Me For Years.

I Think It's Difficult For Young People To Acknowledge Being Smart, To Knowledge Being A Reader. I See Kids Who Are Embarrassed To Read Books. They're Embarrassed To Have People See Them Doing It.