Peter Hedges Quotes

Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything, really, it has so much to do with what I'm going through personally or a problem I'm trying to work out. When I wrote my novel 'Baby,' my three children had all just gone out the door.

I'm a family-based person, even though we didn't exactly have a very happy family. I was never in any doubt that this was a centre of writing.

Most of my characters are an amalgamation of people that I've met, my family, or myself. Being a writer, you can draw only from what you know. I am lucky to have really rich and interesting people in my family for, you know, interesting family nights and great characters.

Many models I knew had come from broken families. That makes a significant difference in the way you handle yourself and the choices you make.

I wouldn't say that my family is normal.

I'm not crazy, but it's a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me.

I can distinctly remember being the only boy in my class whose parents had separated.

I believe that literature always goes precisely there where the damage to a person has been done.

I look at something like 'Short Term 12,' and that character has a lot of pain, and I wouldn't have known how to portray that if I hadn't experienced pain myself.

My life has been wild enough to derive all of the stories you need out of it. I've been through many, many years of behavioral problems, so I don't really look outside for stories.

I don't believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don't think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person.

We've always written from personal experiences.

I'm always drawn toward family drama, and dysfunctional family stories. It speaks to me, in a really profound way, and I think there's so much to explore within it.

The questions I want to ask will revolve around humans, connection, relationships, family, and stories - what are the stories we tell ourselves and each other?

Everyone has bits of dysfunction in their families, but I actually have a very nice, happy one.

My experience is that the universal is the personal. If you can get past your navel-gazing into the deepest part of yourself as a writer, you find everyone - we're all there.

My first recollection of performing was shortly after my parents split up, so the logical conclusion to draw is that that affected me.

The only way you can write about a happy family in a drama is to make them unhappy.

I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened.

I write about personal experiences.

I'm interested in damaged people because we've all been roughed up in one way or another.

Let me tell you, everyone has different experiences. I had a lot of things going on, and I am dealing with it in my own way.

'Working Class Man' is my second memoir and is a continuation of my story from where 'Working Class Boy' left off. The book is really an attempt at explaining the impact of my childhood on myself and the ones I loved as an adult.

I've talked with friends about this: when you write about yourself, that's what people connect to. When you write a sermon or a lesson, that may not reach people. I've learned a lot from people who have been writing about themselves.

'Padman' was about my early life and struggles, including my wife calling me a psycho and leaving me.