Jane Hawking Quotes

I used to tell my three younger siblings stories because that was my household chore, and I told long stories in installments because it was easier and more fun than making up a new story every night. I loved it.

I have always written. I was one of those kids who would always fill exercise books with girls and telepathic ponies.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

When I was a child, we used to look forward to the end of the day when we would hear another ten minutes of a story.

One of the things I would like to do is make up stories that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid. So, if I'm thinking about an audience, it's usually a younger version of myself.

I discovered writing children's books was a way to keep living in my imagination like a child. So I wrote a number of books before I started 'Magic Tree House.' Then, once I got that, I never looked back because I could be somewhere different in every single book.

Storybooks were always a big part of my imagination, and my childhood and adolescence.

I think it's also safe to say genre TV and movies were a big influence - the first stories I ever tried to write were Godzilla fan fiction when I was in elementary school, complete with elaborate maps of Monster Island made with multiple sheets of typing paper and nearly six feet wide. I kind of wish I still had those.

Mother believed that I should have an enormous amount of sleep, and so I was never really tired when I went to bed. This was the best time of day, when I could lie in the vague twilight, drifting off to sleep, making up dreams inside my head the way they should go.

It doesn't feel like work. Yes, I have days that are difficult, but I'm sitting in a chair making up stories. It's what I did for fun as a kid, whether with Barbies or stuffed animals.

After putting the kids to bed, I would think about what I wanted to write.

I've been writing stories all my life. My very first story had two little black girls riding horses. They were both me, too, so that's how into me I was.

Even as a little kid, I told lots of stories, and I wrote them down, and I loved reading fiction and fantasy.

I'd been writing stories since I was a child. I wrote little books for my mom and bound them myself with needle and thread. Mostly, they were about my pets.

With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts or ride dolphins any day of the week.

I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.

I don't think I wrote stories down when I was young, but I certainly made them up, perhaps sometimes losing track of the border between reality and make-believe.

I like the notion of making stuff up or letting your imagination go away with you.

Writing monsters is fun, and it's easy. When I want one, I just reach under the bed and pull it out, kicking and screaming.

When I was little, we had a Golden Book that had all these Disney characters in one portrait on the first page. My dad used to read from it every night. We'd play this game of find Pluto or find Donald Duck. He'd read us stories and do all the voices. Those are great memories.

I was the kind of kid who was always making up stories and adventures.

I wrote my first short story in third grade.

When I'm writing my blog, I think of myself at 13 years old, back in St. Louis, daydreaming about Hollywood.

I was alone as a child. I lived in fairytales, adventures, Shakespeare. They are the friends, my books.

I started writing stories as a child.