Robert Cormier Quotations

...pain reaches a certain point and does not get worse but remains in all its intensity and you can survive it.

Do I dare disturb the universe? Yes, I do, I do. I think. Jerry suddenly understood the poster--the solitary man on the beach standing upright and alone and unafraid, poised at the moment of making himself heard and known in the world, the universe.

Why did the wise guys always accuse other people of being wise guys?

It came to me that hell would not be fire and smoke after all but arctic, everything white and frigid. Hell would be not anger but indifference.

I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.

We all start out with the same alphabet. We are all unique. Talent is not the most important thing --- discipline and dedication are. Craft can be learned but desire and longing are innate. Despite the demands of school and just being young, try to write SOMETHING every day --- a description, a captured emotion, a simile, a metaphor. Read, for crying out loud! A writer must read the way a ball player must go to the ballfield every day to practice. Everything is possible in this world of ours--- and so's publication.

I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations.

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

I'm weary of the battle. But a tired fighter can still be a fighter.

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are.