Robert Cormier

I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

Family life was wonderful. The streets were bleak. The playgrounds were bleak. But home was always warm. My mother and father had a great relationship. I always felt 'safe' there.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

I wanted to be a teacher, but I was a lousy student, one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.

We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition - We're creating our own definition and saying, 'We are intelligent!'

It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what is in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with.